Chow Luen
One stormy night, a poor music student (Patrick Tse) meets a famous dancer (Josephine Siao). In one night, he composes for her the musical of her dreams: A Purple Stormy Night. The management of her dance company is divided on the musical, but the dancer manages to dispel all their doubts and the musical becomes a great success. The student and the dancer fall in love, but there is a shadow side to happiness: corrupted by success, the next musical they make is superficial. "Purple Night" shows the dangerous influence commerce can have on artistic integrity and is also about themes such as love and friendship, the relationship between art and life and the conflict between rich and poor.
Hong Kong's Ironman stepped up to the plate when Dr. No (1962) took the world by storm in the 1960s. Tso Tat-wah, the quintessential tough guy of Cantonese cinema who had appeared in dozens of popular action films, was licensed to spy in several 007 imitations. Here, he is Agent 303, the lucky number "3" a vivid sign of East-West integration. Presented in glorious widescreen, the film is garnished with secret weapons and ominous hideouts, mind games and technological intrigues, violence and sex, the latter in the form of a silhouette striptease!
Connie Chan Po-chu's character's father was killed by the triads, leaving behind two daughters. The elder sister makes a living as a singer at a nightclub, and is sometimes threatened by triad members. The younger sister (Connie Chan Po-chu), who knows karate, becomes an assassin who punishes villains. The first James Bond film was produced in 1962 and quickly became extremely popular worldwide. Quick-thinking Hong Kong filmmakers were inspired to make Chan into a heroine who upholds justice: wearing a tight, black unitard, speeding all over town in speedboats and sports cars, who at the same time embodies the innocence of a young woman. The youth culture and western modern lifestyles pursued by post-war baby boomers made Lady Bond the first of many films in the new Hong Kong genre of James Bond-style spy thrillers starring women.
Lawyer Fan Kam-man believes that his wife Chun Yuen-yung perished in a plane crash three years ago and walks down the aisle again with Yan Bik-kei. In fact, Chun survived a crash-landing on a deserted island with fellow passenger Wong Ah-lik, a biologist. Returning to civilisation, Chun sabotages their wedding night at the hotel. Overjoyed with her safe return, Fan pulls off a feat with his mother and wife to terrify Yan into divorcing him. However the lie is exposed when Wong shows up. Unyielding, the women settle to serve as wives to the same man. Mistaking Fan for the person Chun is going to see, the eavesdropping Yan goes to the date in her stead and unwittingly sleeps with Wong. Yan finally settles for Wong, putting an end to the topsy-turvy.
Orphan Lee Dan-hung is made a scapegoat by her cousin Chor Kwai-ping. Facing drug trafficking charges, Lee is released on parole with the doctor To King-chung as guarantor. Lee works as a sanatorium nurse. The modest caretaker, Matriarch To plays matchmaker for her son To Ngan-sing and Lee. Ashamed of her past, Lee listens to the doctor's advice and keeps the Tos in the dark. Chor returns and coerces Lee into colluding with smuggling ring by threatening to kill her newborn daughter. The reluctant Lee is arrested in a police raid together with the gang members but is later acquitted. With a reputation to defend, To toughens his heart and expels Lee. Lee leaves for Borneo with a touring opera troupe but a yearning for her daughter brings her back several years later. Feeling for the upset in-law, Matriarch To grants her stay until his son's return from business in a few months' time. When To returns, he decides to make up for the wasted time by bringing Lee and her daughter home.
Book Without Words is a 1965 Cantonese martial arts film directed by Chan Lit-Ban and starring Cheung Ching.
Lui Yik-pang is reduced to his wits' end to rein the Golden Butterfly. Chong Tak-ming emerges as the suspect. The friendship and ties between former classmates Lui and Chong date back years ago. When the impoverished Chong turned to banditry, Lui abided by the law and arrested Chong. Chong repented and bore no grudges. Chong's daughter Ching-han and Lui's son Siu-man are lovers. Ching-han reinvents herself as a chivalrous bandit and robs the rich to help the poor after the imprisonment of her father and the death of her mother. Endowed with her father's gifts, Ching-han remains out of the law's reach, until she is tailed by the father enlisted in the police service. A bitter row ensues; the father's underling Sung Sing-biu snatches the stolen goods and activates the security system. Ching-han is prepared to turn herself in when Sung surrenders himself as a gesture of gratitude to his benefactor. Attending the wedding banquet, Lui brings his son and daughter-in-law a golden butterfly.
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.
The town is rumoured to be haunted. Cheung Siu-chen pretends to be possessed so that her lover Lau Tin and his friend Lee Luk may heroically exorcise the ghost and curry favour with her father. Driven by greed and lust, the attendant of the ancestral temple and his underlings cast an enticing spell on Cheung and claim that Cheung is possessed with a fierce ghost. Lau and Lee expose the hoax and redeem Cheung. Cheung's father happily gives his consent to the marriage between his daughter and Lau.
Lee (Ng Cho-fan), who is the retired jewel thief the Black Cat Burglar, is suspected by the police in a string of burglaries. While fleeing from the police's search, he realises he can only prove his innocence by catching the new Cat in the act. Meanwhile, he is romantically caught in between a young girl from overseas and his goddaughter. As a Cantonese ripoff of Hitchcock's To Catch a Thief (1955), this remake does not have the beautiful scenery from the French Riviera but is full of economical wonders. Director Wong Hang employs westernised filmmaking troops to enhance the film, making it outstanding from other Cantonese films of the same time. From high society gatherings to a hide-and-seek in a masquerade, the film demonstrates not only an elegant style but the versatility and adaptability of Cantonese films. Unlike Cary Grant, Ng Cho-fan manifests himself with a mysterious and artistic aura.
Reporter Yu Mong-yuen is recovering from a leg injury in his fiancee Man-wah's apartment. Bored, he looks out the rear window and observes the life of the neighbouring building. Among the tenants are a sugar-daddy and his mistress, a middle-aged man wants to marry a young girl, but she is in love with his son. Finally, she hatches a plot and makes the man agree to her marrying his son ; a sly fortune-teller ; a lively gym, a rich widow quarrels with the trainer of a gymnasium because his dog has bitten her cat ; and an opera school, a woman signs, leaning on the balcony, and a man tries to strangle her. In fact they are rehearsing an opera…… One evening, Wah is on the night shift, and Yuen watches the opera troupe rehearse to the end. Under the influence of drugs, Yu mistakenly believes that a divorced man has murdered a taxi dancer. He alerts the police, but the whole thing is nothing more than a misunderstanding.
