Sit Kok-Sin

The first Cantonese talkie. It was produced in Shanghai (Tianyi Studio) and was based on a Cantonese opera play. DUPLICATE RECORD: See BAIJIN LONG

Hotelier Pak Kam-lung meets Cheung Yuk-neong on a ship travelling to Hong Kong. In Hong kong, Kam-lung searches for Yuk-neong's whereabouts and throws a costume party to lure Yuk-neong. He finally meets Yuk-neong again but she is cool towards Kam-lung. In order to get close to Yuk-neong, Kam-lung disguises himself as a hotel attendant. Meanwhile, the gentleman-thief Yu Yat-chi is attracted by Yuk-neong's diamond brooch. Yat-chi poses as a banker to get close to Yuk-neong. He lures Yuk-neung to his hideout by falsely claiming that her father is hurt in hospital. Yuk-neung is kept prisoner in an attempt to force her father to hand over the diamond brooch. Kam-lung puts on a female disguise to penetrate the hideout to save Yuk-neong. His disguise is seen through by Yat-chi, but fortunately, the police is alerted in time. The bandits are arrested. Finally, Kam-lung and Yuk-neong are married.

A Drama film made by the Tianyi Movie Company

A wealthy man's son, who has a sinecure as a hotel owner, poses as a bellhop to win the affections of a woman guest with whom he has fallen madly in love, but who seeks a common man who is earning his own way. This first Cantonese-language talkie was based on a successful 1930 stage musical written by and starring Xue JueXian (Sit KokSin), the plot of which was in turn inspired by a 1929 silent Hollywood romance called "The Grand Duchess And The Waiter" which Xue admired. The film was produced not in Shanghai, by the Tianyi studio, headed by the eldest of the Shaw Brothers, Shao Zuiweng (RunJe Shaw), and was so successful in the Cantonese-speaking parts of China that Shaw moved the Tianyi company to British-administered, Cantonese-speaking Hong Kong to make more Cantonese films in the face of the right-wing Chinese Nationalist government's ban on Cantonese language in favor of Mandarin. A sequel to Baijin Long was made in 1937, and the film itself was remade in 1947.