It is hard to watch this Shaw film and not have memories of Peking Opera
Blues float in. A warlord, a Peking Opera troupe, rebels, torture, a few
heroic women and even a scene when one of the women has to pretend to seduce
the General in order to get his keys. Of course, Peking Opera Blues is one
of the greatest films ever made and moves along at light speed with plenty
of razzle dazzle action and comedy while this one is a much more earth bound
melodrama and is much slower paced. Still, I wonder if Tsui Hard had seen
this and a piece of it settled into the back of his mind. It is directed
by Ho Meng-hua and surprisingly written by Chang Cheh. Or perhaps not that
surprising if you know his history. Before he became famous for directing
his masculine action films he wrote scripts for romances and dramas. After
this he wrote The Mermaid which is a Huangmei Fantasy Opera with Ivy Ling-po
in one of her male roles. In the following year (1966) he was to direct Tiger
Boy with Jimmy Wang-yu and that set him on a path he was to follow for much
of his career.
Julie Yeh-feng had been an enormous star while at Cathay appearing in some
classic films. In 1964 she came over to the Shaw Brothers to perform in Shepard
Girl, a Chinese Opera. Yeh-feng was a fine singer - her records are available
on Pathe/EMI but I doubt that it is her singing Opera as she is a Mandarin
pop singer. I could be wrong. In this film she plays an actress in a small
Opera troupe with her sister Xiao-yun (Lan Di). Her stage name is the Red
Peony. She is in love with a young student Lin (Chin Han) and they plan on
moving away. But the Warlord General Cao-lin has a thing for her. To make
her his seventh wife. Six is never enough. He is played with great gusto
by Ching Miao as a knuckle head but a cruel one. When he hears about the
relationship, he has Lin arrested on trumped up charges and tortures him
until she agrees to his demands. Lin has to leave the city, but he will be
back. So far this is a bit slow, playing out too much like a romantic melodrama.
But then Lin comes back a year later as a fully pledged rebel with a mission.
To steal documents from the General's safe and the film takes off. He and
the rebels disguise themselves as Opera performers for the General's birthday
bash and amazingly they are very good! The film has 4-5 musical numbers.
Julie and Lan Di (her sister in the film) who also becomes a rebel are terrific
though to some degree Ching Miao steals the show with his over the top grinning
idiocy who spends too much time chasing women and too little time minding
military affairs.
