Ma Hsiao-Nung

A romantic Han Dynasty adventure epic of a dying Emperor, an Evil Queen, a beautiful Princess, a dastardly royal nephew, and a masked hero, with plots and counterplots galore, complete with cliffhangers and last-second rescues.

.A young middle-class upstart Lin Ching Yi reluctantly takes on the task as understudy for her sick father who's a dedicated teacher to a band of mischievous working-class 3rd graders that initially proved to be much more than she can handle. Yet it is the matronly bond that is formed with her little urchin flock and her gradual understanding of the their poverty-stricken home lives outside of the classroom that raises the stakes for her as a teacher. It doesn't hurt that her empathetic male colleague Kit Chang provides support for her dilemmas also provide her a prospect as love interest. With growing ties with her students and school, Lin finds herself accepting the challenge for education of her community with her own education of love.

Nineteen-year old Li Ching scored a major success playing the title character, Susanna. Li's youthful exuberance is given free rein in a role that embraces rebellion, love, betrayal, tragedy, and ultimately, redemption.

Su Fen, a young and frail girl, looked forward to her wedding with her fiancé, Li Kuo-liang. The happy couple's bliss was cut short when war broke out. Kuo-liang was summoned to fight at the front lines. In his absence, Su Fen discovered she had tuberculosis.

Jenny Wu is a singer who charms the well-to-do Peter Chen, but his parents object to a union between their only son and a lowly cabaret singer. He ignores their advice and marries her anyway, and for a time, they find some manner of wedded bliss. But the years are not entirely kind. He works hard to make ends meet, but his health pays the price.

The tragic love triangle of early 20th century Peking Opera star Chiu Hai-tang, his beautiful stage partner, and the warlord who forces himself between them, has been a favorite with Chinese audiences for decades.

A musical staring Carrie Ku Mei as a singer named Xiaoyun Shi, who comes to Hong Kong after a tour of other Asian countries, hoping to develop her career.

A middle-aged couple adopt a young girl.

Love knows no limits in the grand period romance, Lady Jade Locket. A young fighter inadvertently falls for the spirit of a beautiful woman, who died years earlier avenging her own father's murder. The beautiful ghost is in fact the sister of his fiancee. Experienced as an actor in many such romances, director Yen Chuan keeps the tone perfect. Plus, with period specialist Li Li-hua in the lead and the attractive and acclaimed Li Ching playing the ghost girl, he really can do no wrong.

Huangmei Opera movies like The Pearl Phoenix are unique to 1960's Hong Kong culture, a product of the Swinging Sixties but considerably more in touch with their Chinese roots. This one is complete with a gender-bending tale where the male lead is played by female and the female lead poses as a man, plus movie queen Li Ching and the singing voices of Ivy Ling Po and Jing Ting. Sit back and enjoy!

Ivy Ling Po was at the height of her fame in traditional Huangmei Opera films -- and chiefly as a male impersonator -- when she radically changed her image, taking on an ultra-contemporary semi-musical role in Song Of Tomorrow. Ivy plays a dance hostess and leading man Chiao Chuang is a jazz drummer, but with a difference. Chiao is a heroin addict, and Ivy learns that heroin is a far more lethal adversary than "the other woman" when trying to keep their marriage intact.

Comedy of Mismatches begins with widow Sun who single-handedly raises her son Yu Lang (Chin Feng) and daughter Zhu Yi (Li Hsiang Chun). One day, Mother Sun sends her children to the temple, where Yu Lang encounters Hui Niang (Pat Ting). Artist Xu Ya is also at the temple, praying that his daughter Wen Gu (Carrie Ku) will find a good husband. Soon after, Wen Gu encounters nobleman's son Pei Zheng (Wai Mao) and the two fall in love at first sight.

The ethereal Lok Dai plays a pivotal role in the 1962 Shaw Brothers screwball costume comedy The Bride Napping. Based on a chapter of author Shi Naian's The Water Margin (AKA: Outlaws of the Marsh), the action kicks off when Liu Yuen Ying (Ding Nung) is "bride-napped" by a bandit who's out to make her his wife! The bandit's sympathetic sister returns Ying, but that's only the beginning of the mistaken identities, social satires, and cross-dressing confusion as Ying's disappearance and return wreaks havoc with the locals! A delightful costume comedy that combines screwball antics, musical interludes, and even a little action, The Bride Napping is a fun and entertaining way to catch the legendary Lok Dai at her most beautiful and charming!

Hong Kong horror.

The adventures of a young married swordfighting couple, Lianzhu and Gui Wu, and the swordfighting members of their different clans.

Zhao’s husband goes to the capital to take the imperial examination but doesn’t come back. Due to famine, Zhao has to leave her hometown and find her husband, playing her lute for a living.

This is an adaptation of the folk story, “Jin Yu Nu beats her heartless groom with a cane”. Jin Yu Nu, a beggar’s daughter, is a beautiful and kind girl. On a snowy day she saves the life of a poor scholar, Mo Ji. When Mo recovers, he marries Jin with love and gratitude. Mo wins the third place in the imperial examinations, but now he is looked down upon because his wife is a beggar's daughter. Extremely embarrassed and ashamed, Mo wants to divorce but has no excuse. Jin then jumps into the river and Mo has deep regrets but it is too late. Later, Mo’s senior Ambassador Lin appreciates his talents and wants to marry him his daughter. On the wedding night, the bride orders Mo to kneel in her room and beats him hard with a cane. Not until then does Mo know his bride is actually Jin, who has been saved by Lin. At the end, Lin knows Jin still loves Mo and helps the couple reunite.

The noted actress Li Li-hua, star of more than sixty films since 1947, beautifully portrays the drugged, then disgraced wife of a peddler in the waning days of the Ching Dynasty. To make matters worse, she’s soon framed for her husband’s murder by her rapist - the son of the local magistrate! And even that isn’t the end of her woes. It’s best to have a box of tissues nearby as two expert directors ratchet up the emotional suspense in this consummate tearjerker.

The Ching Dynasty novel The Dream of The Red Chamber is not only the most widely read, but also the most filmed book in Chinese history. The sprawling love story has proven a challenge to many filmmakers, but this version is acclaimed as the most successful. A sumptuous feature which took three years of planning and another for production, it was a hugely popular and critical hit which still stands out as a classic of both 18th century literature and 1960s moviemaking.

Hong Kong musical directed by Lo Chen.

Hong Kong drama directed by Lo Chen.

FAIRY, GHOST, VIXEN (1965) consists of three fanciful tales that may be loosely classified as ghost stories, but they're presented and designed more along the lines of traditional fairy tales. They're beautifully staged and photographed and have a timeless quality about them with a moral at the end of each.

Part two of the wartime love story

Chen Hou is a chauffeur who gets caught in a mistaken identity scandal linking him to businesswoman Lok Dai. Chen was supposed to audition for a job as her chauffeur, but a proposed musical show is far more attractive to the aspiring dancer. When a rumor gets out that the two are involved in an affair, she's angry and confronts him, but his charms overwhelm her, and it's revealed that she too desires to dance. Soon she's bankrolling the affair, the sets are being built, and the singing and dancing begin!

1963 film

A young woman in search of a lost identity, her long lost mother who abandoned her soon after her birth.

Shaw Brothers drama.

Singaporean diva Li Ailian has arrived in Hong Kong to further her singing career. Xu Zhaofeng helps her land a job at Spring Wind Palace. Provoked by jealousy, Xu's long-time girlfriend Tao Haiyin, a local diva, insists on performing at the Palace, too. And when two divas strut their stuff, it's great tunes and hot action. Haiyin's brother Zhengsheng, the bandleader, has fallen out with his sister due to his infatuation with Li. Li misunderstands Zhengsheng's intentions initially but his devotion speaks volumes. Haiyin and Xu also reconcile.

THE MONKEY GOES WEST is the first entry in the studio’s epic, four-part screen adaptation of “Journey to the West,” a 16th-century novel recounting the efforts of a Buddhist monk and his magical companions to travel to India and bring back Buddhist sutras.

The eldest daughter of an elderly couple, murders her lover and goes to jail. The youngest daughter, Yin Ni, is taken to her hometown to escape the scandal. While there, Yin Ni becomes involved with a painter, Xu Liang, and tragedy also falls upon her...

Young love and its comedy of errors. Hsiao Fang, played by Li Ching, is a spunky young girl not afraid to fight back against hooligans. Unfortunately, she mistakes the handsome Ma Ta-hai, for one such hoodlum. The two are immediately attracted but refuse to admit their true feelings. The real hooligans are from a rich family led by a devious Madam who devise a revenge plot. With plot twists, mistaken identities, along with some terrific musical numbers, romance has never been this much fun.

A sweet inn-keeper's daughter falls in love with a woodcutter, but witnesses the woodcutter's brother raping her sister. Tragically, the sister commits suicide in shame, and the rapists turn his attentions to the witness, leading to more danger than most romantic dramas can handle.

A woman is fired from her job because she's pregnant. The husband, who's a teacher, needs to get another part-time job as a waiter, to cover the expenses which causes problems at his school. He starts to resent children but there's hope as the husband is able to get another job and start to appreciate his family...

Rich girl, Wu Qiu, is jealous of the relationship between journalist, Xu Shao Tang and singer, Chen Feng Juan. Wu Qiu hatches a plan to separate the couple with disastrous results.

This is a drama about parents disapproving a young couple's relationship and the unfortunate consequences that it has.

A Shaw and Sons production.

A Shaw and Sons production

Tao Zutai, a bank employee, has five children. Tao's wife is addicted to gambling and spends too much and the eldest daughter Guiru is greedy for vanity. Tao is overjoyed when he is notified that he will be promoted to deputy manager.

When a murder occurs in a nightclub, dancers Pak Lai Hung and Lam Yin Fei meet the murderer and run into a college to hide. The next day, they perform on the beach in place of female students Zhu Man Zhen and Liang Mei Fang, but they are expelled by the police because they are not licensed to perform. The next day, they perform on the beach in place of female students Chu Man-chun and Leung Mei-fong. On the night of the charity show, Hung and Fei are watching the performance on stage, but the murderer follows them, fortunately, Fang finds him and calls the teachers and students and the police to arrest him.

Her Pearly Tears

Wang Xinglian returns from her studies in Japan to visit her father in Hong Kong where she has an encounter with the young Japanese Hasegawa Toru. The two meet again and fall in love in Hokkaido when Wang and her best friend Sugimoto Kanako are going on a holiday. Urged by her friend Zhang Yingming to concentrate on her studies, Wang remains ambivalent about the relationship, and is even more upset to realise that Sugimoto is in love with her fellow countryman. Feigning an engagement with Zhang, Wang initiates a break-up with Hasegawa and finds work in Singapore after graduation. Hasegawa learns the real cause of the break-up from Sugimoto in Hong Kong. A frenzy search finally leads to a reunion and a proposal in Kuala Lumpur. However, their love is doomed by a twist of fate as Wang must leave to see her desperately ill father in Hong Kong while Hasegawa has to leave for America to pursue his career.

A HK comedy film starring Jeanette Lin Tsui and Hung Yeung.

A Shaw Brothers comedy starring Peter Chen Ho and Fanny Fan Lai.

A film by the Shaw Brothers studio starring Betty Loh Tih and Peter Chen Ho.

A Shaw Brothers comedy starring Peter Chen Ho and Pat Ting Hung.