The Deformed

The Deformed

Dir: Griffin Yue Feng
Orig Story: Chun Yan
Scr: Ge Ruifen (aka Griffin Yue Feng)
Cast: Betty Loh Ti, Jin Quan (aka King Hu), Jing Miao, Zhao Ming, Hong Wei
Prod Co: Shaw Brothers
1960 | B&W | D Beta | Mandarin | Chinese Subtitles | 99min

This film was acquired locally in 2011.

Purely by coincidence, the Archive discovered two copies of The Deformed, one with Chinese subtitles and the other with English subtitles. It is believed that this long-lost treasure were two versions made to enter film festivals. Having an entire film embossed with subtitles in a brass-plated press would have cost an incredible fortune in the early 1960s, making this a very rare find.


Forced by family circumstances, Shuxian (Betty Loh Ti) is forced to marry Yusheng (King Hu), a deformed man from a wealthy family. They remain a couple in name only. Later, Shuxian falls in love with Yusheng's cousin. Yusheng loves her enough to get out of the way. Shuxian must now choose between her own happiness and family duty. Martial arts film director King Hu started out as an actor, and here flexes his thespian muscles, emphasising the contrast between his hideous appearance and kind heart. Betty Loh Ti shows so many layers of emotions in her performance, interpreting with great finesse the character's feeling wronged, her loneliness, and indecision. Both the male and female leads make this Beauty-and-the-Beast relationship deeper and truer. This film won Best Screenplay and Best Black-and-white Cinematography at the 8th Asian Film Festival(later known as Asia-Pacific Film Festival) in 1961.


Date Time Venue
30/10/2021 (Sat) # 5:00pm Cinema, Hong Kong Film Archive

# Post-screening talk with Joyce Yang


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