Kill A Criminal in His Marriage Ceremony
With China under control of a weak Emperor, two officials compete to steer the future destiny of the land. Chiu believes the people are the future of China, while the diabolical Tu wishes to grind the people beneath an iron heel. Tu decides to take out Chiu's family, but one lone infant escapes.
Opičí císař dostává zbraň v paláci Dračího císaře
Adapted from one of China's most well-known fairy tales, the Goddess of Mount Hua falls in love with a young mortal scholar Liu Yanchang and gives birth to a baby son, Chenxiang. When Chenxiang grows up, he seeks to unravel the mystery surrounding his mother whom he has never met.
Shaw production
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.
Backstage of a traditional Chinese opera, the staff and performers are bringing a play to life: "The Legend of the White Snake."
MY NEXT STEP follows a young Kunqu Opera artist YANG Yang(28 year-old) over the course of several years. It offers its audience a glimpse into the world of Kunqu, and a magnifying look into the ambivalence of a young man struggling to find a way out for a fading art.
When facing a path with no future or precedent success, will we ever choose to stay? Cheuk Cheung’s My Way explores the Cantonese Opera tradition of male Dan performers, men who play female roles, against the backdrop of a Hong Kong society increasingly putting less value on art. Although female performers have long been part of the mainstream of Cantonese Opera, the film follows the stories of two young men who are still fascinated by the art of the male Dan, striving to find their own way to carry on the practice. A moving and searching look at the struggle for identity, My Way is a colourful, musical and moving film which offers a unique and highly personal look at perseverance in the face of a changing society.
Iron-Beaked Hen and Fatso Bo on their way to the city to help a relative out of some trouble, they run into a band of robbers. They stop over an allegedly haunted house where they save the lovers To Lok-yin and Yu Mei-yung from their attemped suicide. Hen learn their story and decide to help them out. Yin comes from a rich family, he lost his father when he was very young and was brought up by his uncle. Now that he is old enough to claim his inheritance, the guardian, his uncle, in order to keep the fortune under control, forces him to marry a girl of his choosing. The couple cannot face separation and resolve to end their lives together. Hen thinks of a way to help them, which involves Yin pretending to comply; that is, to go ahead with the marriage arrangement. On the wedding day, they swap the bride with Yung. Disguised as a matchmaker and a county official respectively, Hen and Bo reprimand To's uncle who schemes to seize To's family fortune. To and Yu marry.
Qing (i.e. Qin) Xianglian was the wife of a man named Chen Shimei, who won the first title of national examination and awarded as husband of the emperor's daughter. Then Qing (i.e. Qin) sues Chen as a murderer who plans to kill his wife and son. In spite of the royal power, gownsman Bao Zhen settles the lawsuit and sentences Chen to serve his head.
This film is a portrait of unique cultural space for Spirits, Gods and People. While permanent theatres are commonly built in most cosmopolitan modern cities, Hong Kong preserves a unique theatrical architecture, a Chinese tradition that has lasted more than a century - Bamboo Theatre.
A live recording of the premier of Korean composer Unsuk Chin's Alice in Wonderland opera at National Theater Munich in June 2007. It is a modern opera based on Lewis Carroll's fantasy novel of the same name. The amazing characters Alice meets are portrayed with a colorful combination of puppets and singer-actors.
An adaptation of Tong Tik-sang's now-legendary Cantonese Opera piece, the film features divas Yam Kim-fai and Pak Suet-sin (left with Yam), who play the story's lead lovers, and Lan Chi Pak, the sinister official who tries to break up the relationship. Leung Sing-po plays the pair's friend as well as the mysterious 'man in yellow' who exposes plans to separate the couple.
Tang Bohu is smitten by the stunning beauty of Qiuxiang, the maid of Grand Tutor Hua, during his visit to a monastery in Suzhou. Stalking the maid, Tang's affections are finally reciprocated with three charming smiles. To approach the fair maid, Tang seeks work in the Grand Tutor residence as a study companion, and his talents win Hua's attention. As a frustrated suitor, he turns to his resourceful friend Zhu Zhishan for help.
Abandoned by his prostitute mother in 1920, Douzi was raised by a theater troupe. There he meets Shitou and over the following years the two develop an act entitled "Farewell My Concubine" that brings them fame and fortune. When Shitou marries Juxian, Douzi becomes jealous, the beginnings of the acting duo's explosive breakup and tragic fall take root.
杨门女将
A Chinese Canadian son sets out to make a film on his mother, who was once known as the first ever Chinese Opera Singer to have performed Pingju Opera in English in late 1980's China.
The main characters are two youngsters of China's Mongolian nationality, Temur and his younger sister Schin, whose fine revolutionary qualities - courage, tenacity and wholehearted devotion to the public interests - are highlighted in the dance-drama.
This is the first 16mm Cantonese film in full colour, shot on 1940s state-of-the-art Technicolor film stock. Opera star Man-ha (Leung Bik-yuk) enjoys tremendous popularity during her performances in San Francisco, but drowns herself in the vices and temptations of the big city. Increasingly, she fails to show up for performances, almost causing the theatre to go bankrupt. When she sees her lover for the scoundrel that he is, she also sees the errors of her own ways and saves the theatre, restoring it to glory. Joseph Sunn Jue established the Grandview Film Company in Hong Kong during the 1930s and continued making films in the USA during wartime by collaborating with Chinese opera performers in exile there. Wong Hok-sing, an opera actor himself, directed, wrote and starred in this film. He staged a spectacular play-within-a-play at the end, not only to promote the art of Cantonese opera but also to boost solidarity among overseas Chinese through difficult times.