Outside the Window
Reviewed by YTSL
This Taiwanese film has never been shown in cinemas
in its native country and is not readily available anywhere in the world.
Although it was a big hit in Hong Kong -- and presumably elsewhere in East
Asia -- when it was released there nearly three decades ago, it can hardly
be considered to be a cinematic gem by any stretch of the imagination.
Yet this admittedly maudlin melodrama is a movie that I was very happy to
come across and which I have a feeling that quite a few Hong Kong moviephiles
would quite gladly watch if given the chance.
This is because OUTSIDE THE WINDOW is the debut movie of Brigitte Lin Ching-Hsia.
However strange it may seem for those who have not (yet) fallen under her
spell, there is incredible novelty value in watching this screen goddess
in a film that was completed: At least one decade before she made her
Hong Kong movie debut as the Ice Countess in Tsui Hark's landmark "Zu: Warriors
from the Magic Mountain"; and some TWENTY years before she would become Asia
the Invincible (in "Swordsman II" and "The East is Red"), The Bride with
White Hair, The Defeat-Seeking Loner (of "Ashes of Time") and Wong Kar Wai's
Gloria (in "Chungking Express"). For those who have read about her
real-life romance(s) as well as watched the heart-rending "Red Dust", there
is tremendous irony and poignancy in her tragic OUTSIDE THE WINDOW character
getting involved in a socially unacceptable relationship and then essentially
forced into marriage with a man...who is portrayed by an actor (Chin Han)
who met the actress nicknamed "Wondrous Beauty" (by the Chinese media) on
the set of this film, subsequently divorced his wife for her and last partnered
her on screen in Yim Ho's 1990 directorial effort.
How Brigitte Lin (or Lin Ching Shyia, as she is credited in the film) came
to be found to star -- and, make no mistake, she is its centerpiece, heart
and soul -- in OUTSIDE THE WINDOW appears shrouded in myths and legend.
One source tells of her being "discovered" on a busy Taipei street.
According to another (Toby Russell), the then teenager was noticed by a director
when she accompanied a friend to the audition for the movie. The story
goes that the woman who would go on to be a magnetic presence in 100+ Hong
Kong as well as Taiwanese films had no prior acting aspirations or experience
whatsoever, and was picked to appear in this circa 1971-1973 production primarily
on the basis of her classic beauty rather than any thespian talent.
Even if all of this were not true, it would still be amazing to see someone
-- who possibly was still a school student when this feature was made --
having to do so much and so successfully in her very first film. In
a spoiler-filled nutshell: Lin's character goes from being a school
girl who has spats with her younger brother and is primarily concerned with
passing her pre-university exams to an embittered and abused -- at least
once -- wife. Along the way, she falls in love with a teacher who is
twenty years her senior (played by Hwyu Chyi) and attempts suicide after
being forbidden by her parents to see him.
More evidence of truth being liable to be stranger than fiction comes from
this sensational(ist) story being a thinly veiled autobiography of a popular
romance novelist (named Qiong Yao). It was purportedly at the author's
request -- for fear that the tale would bring shame to her mother -- that
this movie was not released in Taiwan. I must admit to wondering about
the validity of this report since the film was based on a 1963 book that
Qiong Yao herself had written.
In any case, in quite a few ways, one can view this fairly modest production
as containing so many portends of what was to come. Among them is the
fact that although Lin Ching-Hsia was a popular star of many Taiwanese movies
-- mostly weepies like OUTSIDE THE WINDOW -- in the 1970s (the era known
as that of "the two Chins and the two Lins"; with one of the Chins being
Chin Han, and the two Lins being the woman who has also been credited as
Venus -- again, because of her noted loveliness -- and the actress who disappeared
from public view after marrying Jackie Chan), Hong Kong was where Brigitte
Lin really would come into her own.
My rating for the film: 5.5; my rating
for (the pre-Brigitte) Lin Ching-Hsia: 9.