Ku Chiu-Chin
Following the lives of three downtrodden but resilient outcasts, John Lo Mar's gritty social drama paints a sense of realism rarely seen in Hon Kong movies. Li Ching - the best actress of her era - play Ah Chiao is a girl from a rural village stranded in the city, who befriends a kind-hearted transient and a retired actor. They are poor, but they are happy. Although her fortune changes for the better when she becomes a singer, she ultimately learns money can't buy happiness.
Golden Lotus is based, in part, on Jin Ping Mei, a famous erotic novel of ancient China. Li Han-Hsiang adapted part of the story into this film, which starts with Hsi Men Ching, a successful merchant, wooing Pan Chin Lien, the beautiful wife of one of the townspeople.
Shih Hsin-chiao (Ling Yun) is a journalist who trained under mentor Lu Tao-jan (Chin Han). Lu's daughter, Chih-pai (Tien Niu) is infatuated with the good-looking and intelligent Shih, but Shih sees her only as a child. When he returns from a long stay abroad, he finds that things have changed. Chih-pai is now an attractive young woman in a relationship with rich boy (Wang Yu). A miscarriage and Lu's death throw Shih and Chih-pai back together again.
As the Heng Seng Index reaches unprecedented heights, people from all walks of life go stock speculation crazy. A security guard and his landlord learn firsthand that money is ‘Easy Come, Easy Go’ as their fast fortune disappears overnight in a Macau casino. Meanwhile, greedy neighbours and infidel couples cheat each other and even blue-collar workmen dive into the frenzy. Inevitably, the market tumbles as do the people’s bittersweet lives. A hilarious but ironic tale featuring some of Shaw’s biggest stars.
The Angry Guest is a direct sequel to Duel of Fists which had two long-separated brothers, Ti Lung and David Chiang, reuniting in Bangkok and running afoul of the local mob after Ti Lung, a boxer, beats the local favorite in the ring. In this film, the action shifts from Bangkok to Hong Kong to Japan and then back to HK as the brothers contend with a Japanese mob led by crime boss Yamaguchi, who is played by the film's director, Chang Cheh, in a rare screen appearance.
