Ching Lai
The film is adapted from Chinese classic comic series Mr Wong, with Tang Bik-wan joining hands with the magnificent Sun Ma Si-tsang and Tam Lan-hing to give a dazzling performance. Wong (Sun Ma Si-tsang) passes off as the company's manager to pursue the beauty Hui (Tang Bik-wan) behind his fearsome wife's (Tam Lan-hing) back. Unbeknown to him, Hui is actually the fiancée of his nephew (Sima Wah-lung), to whom he has refused to lend money. Scenes in which Hui plays pranks on him and tricks him into providing funds for her are spiced up by the lively acting of Sun Ma as a wife-fearing perv and Tang as a sassy girl with a sharp tongue. The film ends with Wong making excuses to meet Hui at a hotel but getting caught by his feisty wife. Whilst both are acclaimed comedians in their own right, brassy Tam and composed Tang together pull Sun Ma's leg in an unmissable classic slapstick.
A Chinese Opera film by the Shaw and Sons studio.
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.
The film commences with Ching (Tang Bik-wan) lamenting over her bleak life through singing: her mother died early and her stepmother (Lam Mui-mui) is wicked. The song precedes her appearance in the house while the cinematography helps to tug at the emotional heartstrings. Because of her debt-ridden father, Ching is forced by the stepmother to marry an old invalid. To prevent the marriage, Ching's lover Ho (Chan Kam-tong) raises money by agreeing to marry his own cousin (Fung Wong Nui). Ching's life is doomed, yet, when the stepmother absconds with the money. With all her hopes dashed to the ground, Ching decides to opt out of marriage for life. However, witnessing her 'self-combed' sworn sisters being bullied even to the point of committing suicide further devastates her. This tragic heroine comes to life through Tang's masterful performance both as a singer and an actor. The climatic and tear-jerking scene of Ching dying is definitely a highlight of the film.
