GRACE CHANG (GE LAN)

Songstress films were popular during the golden age of Mandarin cinema in Hong Kong, from the late 1950s to the mid 1960s. This was a transitional period, with films reflecting changes in Hong Kong society and a self-conscious mixing of East and West, old and new, and regional influences. Grace Chang was one of the new stars who dominated this period. She grew up in Shanghai and trained in Peking opera before moving with her family to Hong Kong in 1949. After making her first film in 1953, she joined Motion Picture and General Investment (MP & GI) as a contract star. Chang retired from the cinema a decade later with about 30 films and a number of musical recordings under her belt. Established in 1956, MP & GI distinguished itself from established studios, which often focused on period dramas and kung-fu films, by making contemporary stories in middle-class settings — romantic comedies, musicals and modern melodramas influenced by Hollywood. The company attracted great directors and scriptwriters (including Tao Qin, Tang Huang, Bu Wancang, Wang Tianlin, Yi Wen and Eileen Chang), created stars, and successfully mixed Chinese and international sensibilities, developing a strong contemporary, urban cinema. Cosmopolitan mainland refugees — well educated but in economically reduced circumstances — swelled the audiences for these stories which navigate between urban experience, the economic and social dreams of the displaced, and Hollywood genre fantasy. Period dramas on the other hand appealed more to economically established Hong Kong residents, largely Cantonese, looking for their cultural roots on the mainland and hungry to identify with longstanding traditions.

Mambo Girl (Manbo Nülang) 1957 All ages
3.00pm Saturday 12 May, introduced by Sam Ho, Hong Kong Film Archi / Cinema A / Live electronic subtitling

35MM, 92 MINS, B. & W., MONO, HONG KONG, MANDARIN / DIRECTOR/SCRIPT: YI WEN (EVAN YANG) / PRODUCER: STEPHEN SOONG (LIN YILIANG) / CINEMATOGRAPHY: DONG SHAOYONG / EDITOR: WANG ZHAOXI / MUSIC: YAO MIN, KEI SHANG-TONG / CAST: GRACE CHANG, PETER CHEN HO, KITTY TING HAO, LIU ENJIA, TANG RUOQING, WU JIAXIANG / PRODUCTION COMPANY: MP & GI FILM STUDIO / PRINT SOURCE/RIGHTS: CATHAY-KERIS FILMS / SCREENING FORMAT: DIGITAL BETACAM

High-energy dance numbers delightfully punctuate this teen musical melodrama. Kailing (Grace Chang) is popular with her classmates, has the attention of school hunk Danian (Peter Chen Ho) and is adored by her parents and little sister (Kitty Ting Hao). When she finds out that she was adopted, she is devastated and leaves to find her natural mother, who she traces to a dance hall. Kailing’s mother works a lowly job at the hall and is ashamed when her daughter sees her so she denies any knowledge of her. Meanwhile, Kailing’s worried adoptive family ask only that she return home and resume her position as the sun around which they orbit. From the first shot of harlequin pants and flat dance shoes on a chequerboard floor, Grace Chang is utterly addictive as she mambos and flashes her eyes through ‘I love Cha Cha’ and other catchy Mandarin pop songs written by popular composer Yao Min.

Our Dream Car (Xiangji Meiren) 1959 All ages
1.00pm Sunday 13 May, introduced by Sam Ho, Hong Kong Film Archive / Cinema A / Live electronic subtitling

35MM, 100 MINS, B. & W., MONO, HONG KONG, MANDARIN / DIRECTOR/SCRIPT: YI WEN (EVAN YANG) / PRODUCER: STEPHEN SOONG (LIN YILIANG) / CINEMATOGRAPHY: FAN JIE / EDITOR: WANG ZHAOXI / ART DIRECTION: REX FAY / MUSIC: KEI SHANG-TONG / CAST: GRACE CHANG, ZHANG YANG, KELLY LAI CHEN, LIU ENJIA, WU SHUANG, YANG CHUN / PRODUCTION COMPANY: MP & GI FILM STUDIO / PRINT SOURCE/RIGHTS: CATHAY-KERIS FILMS / SCREENING FORMAT: DIGITAL BETACAM

Newlywed Zhang Daming (played by the baby-faced Zhang Yang — Tony Leung for a previous generation) seethes with jealous rivalry when his wife’s ex-suitor, Ma Zhengkang (Kelly Lai Chen), turns up in a luxury car after becoming a car salesman. To make matters worse, Zhang’s wife Li Jiaying (Grace Chang) immediately transforms into a motoring enthusiast and is determined to buy a car from Zhengkang. After heated discussions about their travel arrangements and weekly budget, they bring home a car and a payment plan. Many quarrels and much hilarity ensue before the bubble of consumer pleasure bursts in favour of other pleasures.

The Wild, Wild Rose (Ye Mei Gui Zhi Lian) 1960 All ages
6.00pm Friday 11 May, introduced by Sam Ho, Hong Kong Film Archive / Cinema A / Live electronic subtitling

35MM, 124 MINS, B. & W., MONO, HONG KONG, MANDARIN / DIRECTOR: WANG TIANLIN / PRODUCER: ROBERT CHUNG / SCRIPT: YIFU QIN / CINEMATOGRAPHY: HUANG MING / MUSIC: YAO MING, HATTORI RYOICHI / CAST: GRACE CHANG, ZHANG YANG, DOLLY SOO FUNG, WANG LAI, LIU ENJIA, SHEN YUN, LAI TA / PRODUCTION COMPANY: MP & GI FILM STUDIO / PRINT SOURCE: HONG KONG FILM ARCHIVE / RIGHTS: CATHAY-KERIS FILMS

Film noir meets songstress film in this loose adaptation of Georges Bizet’s Carmen, which also draws inspiration from Josef von Sternberg's The Blue Angel 1930. Director Wang Tianlin masters sets, lighting and camera angles to create a very stylish film. Grace Chang plays Deng Sijie, a nightclub singer who irresistibly pours herself into the latin, jazz, blues and operatic musical numbers arranged and composed by Yao Ming and Japanese composer Hattori Ryoichi (who also worked for MP & GI on Because of Her 1963 and for Shaw Brothers on Hong Kong Rhapsody 1967). Chang is dangerously cool and sexy as she sings, struts and growls through ‘Jajambo’ and a Mandarin adaptation of Georges Bizet's ‘Habanera’. Liang Hanhua (Zhang Yang), the fresh-faced piano player at the New Ritz club, attempts to resist her charms but falls more decisively under her spell. This is cinema and seduction at its best — don’t miss it.

June Bride (Liu Yue Xinniang) 1960 All ages
12 noon Wednesday 9 May / Cinema A / Live electronic subtitling

35MM, 100 MINS, B. & W., MONO, HONG KONG, MANDARIN / DIRECTOR: TANG HUANG / PRODUCER: ZHONG QIWEN / SCRIPT: EILEEN CHANG / CINEMATOGRAPHY: HUANG MING / EDITOR: WANG ZHAOXI / ART DIRCTION: FEI BOYI / MUSIC: YAO MIN / CAST: GRACE CHANG, ROY CHIAO, ZHANG YANG, SU FENG, TIAN QING, DING HAO, LIU ENJIA / PRODUCTION COMPANY: MP & GI FILM STUDIO / PRINT SOURCE/RIGHTS: CATHAY-KERIS FILMS / SCREENING FORMAT: DIGITAL BETACAM

One of Eileen Chang’s best screenplays, June Bride is a fast-paced romantic comedy with a strong female lead, Wang Tanlin (Grace Chang), who has little concern for social convention. Wang Tanlin arrives on an ocean liner from the mainland with the intention of resolving any uncertainty about her prospective marriage to Tung Chifang (Zhang Yang). Suspicions of infidelity, the disappearance of the bride, a greedy father and the groom’s erstwhile mistress all provide stock elements but the handling of the material is contemporary and psychological. A sequence exploring the intoxicated Tanlin’s unconscious fears and desires in a fantastical all-singing, all-dancing dream is a highlight. The excitement of flirtations with a Chinese–Filipino musician (Tian Qing) and sailor (Roy Chiao) is reined in for the 1960s audience when Wang Tanlin says she is looking for something more secure in love and admonishes the sailor, ‘You see too many foreign films’. Yet she will only go through with the wedding to Zhang Yang if all of her fears about his sincerity are allayed.

Because of Her (Jiao Wo ru He Bu Xiang Ta) 1963 All ages
3.00pm Sunday 13 May, introduced by Sam Ho, Hong Kong Film Archive / Cinema A / Live electronic subtitling

35MM, 101 MINS, B. & W., MONO, HONG KONG, MANDARIN / DIRECTORS/SCRIPT: YI WEN (EVAN YANG), WANG TIANLIN / CINEMATOGRAPHY: SEIICHI ENDO / MUSIC: HATTORI RYOICHI / CAST: GRACE CHANG, KELLY LAI CHEN, ROY CHIAO HUNG, WANG LAI / PRODUCTION COMPANY: MP & GI FILM STUDIO / PRINT SOURCE/RIGHTS: CATHAY-KERIS FILMS / SCREENING FORMAT: DIGITAL BETACAM

Because of Her was MP & GI’s first wide-screen colour film and reunites co-director Wang Tianlin, composer Hattori Ryoichi and star Grace Chang (appearing for the first time after her marriage in 1961) — the three key elements in the extraordinarily success of The Wild, Wild Rose. Singer and dancer Li Mei-hsin (Grace Chang) is going out with another performer Du Zhi-ping (Kelly Lai Chen) when, after a night of love, he announces that he is going to work in Japan. After he leaves, Mei-hsin finds out she is pregnant. The director of her performance troupe, Jin Shih-ming (Roy Chiao), offers to marry her. She accepts and all goes smoothly until Zhi-ping returns. The musical numbers in the film are extraordinarily diverse and spectacular in staging and style, offering a glimpse of Hong Kong cultural stereotyping, from Japanese to Indonesian to Latin-inspired song-and-dance numbers.