The Butterfly Chalice is the first film directed
by Chang Cheh for the Shaw Brothers. He had been involved in other duties
for them such as scriptwriting since 1961 and they were finally willing to
let him direct a film - with a co-director, Yuan Qie-feng, looking over his
shoulder. Yuan had a long list of credits at the time directing films in
Mandarin, Cantonese and other dialects. Black Forest and Song Fest were directed
by him for Shaw but he was soon to leave the company after this film. The
film that was assigned to Chang was not what you might expect as The Butterfly
Chalice is a quasi-Huang-mei film with some spoken dialogue but much of it
is done in Chinese Opera style with inner thoughts sung, dialogue sung and
a narrative chorus. Very formalized though in terms of period decor, clothes
and movement.
Chang though insisted on a few things -
he wanted a male actor playing the male role - often reserved for females
- and he wanted some action inserted into the story - surprisingly bloody
for this sort of film (with Lo Lieh participating). Overall, it is a sweet
delight with poking fun at the ruling class and a near Gilbert & Sullivan
comic ending. Chang wrote the script and the lyrics. The music was composed
by the reliable team of Wang Fuling and Eddie Wang who were behind many of
the Huang-mei films of the period. The two main singers were Tsin Ting and
Kiang Hung who were the singing voices for many of the operas.
Yu-chuan (Chin Feng) is the son of the county
magistrate and when he sees an older man being beaten up on the street by
a group of men, he intervenes and beats them up with one last blow to the
leader. The leader is killed. A big problem as he is the son of the Governor
General (Ching Miao) who ranks far above that of the magistrate. The
Governor immediately orders the arrest and execution of Yu-chuan. He co-incidentally
finds refuge in the boat of the old man (Tien Feng) who he thought he saved.
But he died and it is his daughter Feng-lien (Pat Ting-hung) who allows him
to stay. He gives her a tiny butterfly chalice to show his parents that she
has come from him. But it is also an engagement symbol and having innocently
spent the night alone with her, the parents think of her as their future
daughter-in-law.
It all gets mixed up. She goes to the Governor
and demands justice for her dead father and he agrees but then she tells
him it was his son. But the son is dead. The Governor wants her executed
but he has brought all his ministers to court and they won't let him. The
interplay between the court officials is slightly absurd and amusing. Meanwhile,
Yu-chuan has gone on the run but in another coincidence saves the Governor
in disguise who is scouting out a bandit clan. He joins the army and
becomes a hero and is adopted by the Governor, not knowing that he killed
his son. It gets more absurd when his father wants to arrest and try his
son and Feng-lien spurns him for giving in to prestige and power. One of
the court officials tells the Governor that trading his dead son for this
son is a very good deal. The Governor agrees.
Pat Ting-hung is very adorable in the role
and perfectly graceful. I have gotten used to this movie huang-mei music
- much more melodic to my ears than the theatrical version and I found this
fairly pleasant. Others may have a different reaction! It is basically a
light romantic musical comedy. Don't go in expecting a typical Chang Cheh
wuxia. It is miles away from that. Take it as it is and it is a low-key pleasure.
A few other familiar faces show themselves - Wu Ma as a servant, Kao Pao-shu
as the mother of the dead son, Lee Kwan as a servant to the dead son and
Tong Kai as one of the bandits.
