I don't want to go home tonight.

sword beneath the flowers • 花下劍

Five Elements Ninjas (五遁忍術) dir. Chang Cheh, 1982

Takuya Kimura in 2046 (Wong Kar-wai, 2004)

阮玲玉 | CENTER STAGE (1991) dir. Stanley Kwan

鬼眼 - Ghost Eyes (1974)

COMRADES: ALMOST A LOVE STORY (1996) - directed by Peter Chan

"Remembering you in the rain, the tears were scattered all over the ground."

For @praninlove

poster for The Boxer’s Omen (1983)

I really like this photo. ❤️ I need to put words on it or give it a title. It looks like it’d be a nice art house/independent film starring Jackson Wang. 😂 it’s actually a photo from his tour. But for some reason it stopped me in my tracks.

Five Days of Yam-Pak Movies ～ Bonus: Madam Yun // 芸娘 (dir. Chu Kea/珠璣, 1960) - starring Yam Kim Fai (任劍輝) and Pak Suet Sin (白雪仙)

Click below for more information + some commentary!

Outline & Scene Summary Inspired by Shen Fu/沈復's Qing Dynasty autobiography Six Records of a Floating Life/浮生六記. Madam Yun focuses on Shen Fu (Yam Kim Fai) and his wife Yun (Pak Suet Sin), who live in married bliss with their children at the former’s familial home. However, they fall foul of the machinations of Shen Fu’s younger half-brother, who has designs on the inheritance, and are summarily kicked out. The young family struggle to adjust to their poverty, but their plight is worsened by Yun becoming chronically ill; these desperate straits result in Shen Fu having to leave his family behind in search of paying work. Thankfully, after all his efforts he is able to find a benefactor, and the family is reunited under one roof (which is, sadly, not what happened in real life). In this early scene depicting the calm before storm, Shen Fu is trying to write a poem, but struggles to find the right words to finish off a line. As he is musing, his wife sneaks up and writes in her own suggestion, delighting him with her scholarly wit.

Although the movie as a whole is pretty dour, the first few scenes really stood out to me as a lovely (if inadvertent) depiction of an F/F couple being happily married with children, especially as Pak’s character is not reduced to being a mere mother or housewife, and the focus remains on the love between the pair. It’s also notable that the source material is known for being a rare depiction of a loving marriage in Chinese literature, and the earlier 1954 film adaptation specifically cast two actors who frequently played married couples (namely Cheung Wood-Yau/張活游 and Pak Yin/白燕; see source). The casting of Yam-Pak for this movie indicates that the studio was confident the public would embrace them as not only a romantic pairing, but specifically the ideal of a married couple.

Note: Six Records of a Floating Life is very much worth reading, not only because it's a vividly-drawn portrait of everyday life in 19th-century China (floral arrangements! exam LARPing! complaining about how touristy Hangzhou's West Lake is!), but also because it contains queer elements. There are references to Yun having a relationship with another woman (and asking her husband to take her on as a concubine, lol) and being attracted to other women, none of which are mentioned in this movie.

Links:

My post about Yam Kim Fai and Pak Suet Sin being queer icons

Full movie on Youtube

Made in Hong Kong, 1997

Un film coup de poing sur la jeunesse hongkongaise

Mi-Août est collecteur de dettes pour un certain M. Wing, proche des triades locales. Son quotidien va se trouver bouleversé par deux événements : la découverte par Jacky, petit voyou handicapé mental qu’il a pris sous son aile, de deux lettres d’adieux laissées par une jeune suicidée, et sa rencontre avec la jolie Ah Ping dont il tombe rapidement amoureux. Or cette dernière est atteinte d’une maladie incurable…

Tourné quelques mois avant le rattachement de Hong Kong à la Chine, le troisième film du réalisateur Fruit Chan traduit avec rage le sentiment d’urgence de cette société à la perspective d’avenir incertaine. Thriller sentimental porté par une troupe d’acteurs non académique, Made in Hong Kong montre le malaise d’une jeunesse ayant perdu tout repère dans la jungle urbaine d’une mégalopole.

MADE IN HONG KONG [OFFICIAL TRAILER]

LESLIE CHEUNG & TONY LEUNG HAPPY TOGETHER 春光乍洩 (1997) dir. - WONG KAR WAI

Carina Lau and Jacky Cheung behind the scenes of Days of Being Wild (1990)

films watched in 2024: [4/?]

少林足球 | SHAOLIN SOCCER (2001) dir. Stephen Chow

鬼眼 - Ghost Eyes (1974)

COMRADES: ALMOST A LOVE STORY (1996) Directed by Peter Chan