Oh! Susanna (1967) - Li Ching at her finest?

[teako170]

If it weren't for the remasters, I wouldn't have even known about this film - let alone seen it. But I'm glad I finally did.

In what started out as her playing a spoiled little brat (who I wanted to take the back of my hand to), Li Ching totally flipped-the-script here and pulled off an astonishing performance. I don't want to ruin it by giving out any spoilers but the way her character's real-life situation played out through her school play in the end was nothing less than gut-wrenching.

One of my favorite scenes was when she and her "bud" go to the movies and attempts to cuddle up to him - who is a bit reluctant. The best part though was what they were watching. While you don't see the screen itself, the blaring trumpets (which we all know) made it quite amusing.

I checked out the trailers on this disc afterwards. Couple of Shaw beauties just starting out.....

First was Tropical Interlude which had a very young (18/19) Lily Li - though it seemed more of a chick-flick than anything (sorry gals).

The other was Song Of Orchid Island which featured the fresh faced Cheng Pei Pei looking quite adorable.

Film had some nice exotic locales. Might look into this one. Any comments?

[goliamoto]

Yeah, Susanna is a great movie, one of my favourite Shaw dramas.

About Song of Orchid Island, I think it's filmed in Lanyu, a taiwanese island which has a polinesian-like feel. Actually, I haven't seen it, but i'm interested in getting it. Let's see if somebody posts any comment about this movie.

[mpm74]

OH! Susanna sounds cool. i'll check it out.

[Tosh]

I'd like to start checking out some of these non-kf shaws, even some of the Huangmei operas.

[SamuraiDana]

I've checked out some of the Shaw musicals and I recommend two, one each with Li Ching and Cheng Pei Pei:

HONG KONG RHAPSODY (1967) stars Li Ching as a young singer who is taken in by her late father's colleague, a philandering magician played by Peter Chen Ho. Of course, the two fall in love, but he feels he's not good enough for her (he isn't), so he arranges for a cranky old millionaire to "adopt" her and back her in a show, which upsets her. She's beautiful in it and wears a lot of great costumes.

BLUE SKIES (1967) stars Cheng Pei Pei as a singer-dancer in a touring show who's in love with the troupe's songwriter (also Peter Chen Ho), but the boss of the troupe intervenes and breaks it up, leaving everyone miserable until...years later, she's living in poverty and hears her former lover's song on a TV show and...well, there's a happy ending. Peter Chen Ho is seen conducting an orchestra in a recording studio for a film score (presumably Shaw Bros.). We get to see Cheng Pei Pei dance in this one. Always a treat. This is the better of these two films, but both are worth seeing by fans of the stars.

[Guest ShawBrothers]

sweet and wild (1966) is really good for a non kungfu movie

[mpm74]

Young People was really good too.

[Biozombie]

I wasn't keen on Orchid Island and Tropicana Interlude was only a little better.

I'd recommend anything by Inoue Umetsugu, especially Millionaire Chase and Hong Kong Nocturne.

A Place To Call Home was cheezy fun too and features Li Ching.

I've not seen many Huangmei opera's but I did really enjoy Kingdom And The Beauty, Lotus Lamp and Diau Charn. Love Eterne has a great reputation but I thought it was dreadful.

[xianzai]

Blues Skies is a favorite of mine; it's a great showcase for Cheng Pei Pei and has lots of neat musical sets.

I had hoped Song of Orchid Island would feature Cheng Pei Pei running around in skimpy native costumes and having a torrid, forbidden romance with the doctor who comes to the island. Unfortunately it was quite tame and forgettable.

If you're going to try Huangmei opera, I suggest you start with Lady General Hua Mulan. It is short and has action. Huangmei opera is very much an aquired taste; I have seen 7-8 and still haven't aquired it. I can get through them, but it's generally not an entirely enjoyable experience. It has memorably been described as characters screeching at each other, and it can often feel just like that.

Sweet and Wild is a fun film with Li Ching and Ling Yun. The singing can be repetitive, but is fairly easy to tolerate, and there's a nice backstory of the clash of the traditional and the modern.

There's a lot of enjoyable films from SB that aren't filled with martial arts. Even the ones with poor storytelling usually have good production values and the contemporary ones provide a look back at vanished times. The more I see of them, the more I wish someone would release all the SB films that were restored.

[Guest ShawBrothers]

great to see some peoples not just watching kung fu, here's a small list of non martial art related that i found enjoyable

1. The Kingdom and the Beauty (1959)
   
2. The Enchanting Shadow (1960)
   
3. Rear Entrance (1960)
   
4. Love Without End (1961)
   
5. Bride Napping (1962)
   
6. Madame White Snake (1962)
   
7. Dream of the Red Chamber (1962)
   
8. Yang Kwei Fei (1962)
   
9. The Love Eterne (1963)
   
10. A Maid from Heaven (1963)
    
11. Love Parade (1963)
    
12. Three Sinners (1963)
    
13. The Adulteress (1963)
    
14. Return of the Phoenix (1963)
    
15. The Empress Wu Tse-tien (1963)
    
16. The Story of Sue San (1964)
    
17. The Shepherd Girl (1964)
    
18. The Warlord and the Actress (1964)
    
19. Comedy of Mismatches (1964)
    
20. The Female Prince (1964)
    
21. The Dancing Millionairess (1964)
    
22. Beyond the Great Wall (1964)
    
23. Between Tears and Laughter (1964)
    
24. Crocodile River (1965)
    
25. The Butterfly Chalice (1965)
    
26. The West Chamber (1965)
    
27. Inside the Forbidden City (1965)
    
28. Vermillion Door (1965)
    
29. The Dawn Will Come (1966)
    
30. Rose, Be My Love (1966)
    
31. Sweet and Wild (1966)
    
32. The Blue and the Black (Part 2) (1966)
    
33. The Blue and the Black (Part 1) (1966)
    
34. The Perfumed Arrow (1966)
    
35. Black Falcon (1967)
    
36. Too Late for Love (1967)
    
37. My Dreamboat (1967)
    
38. Auntie Lan (1967)
    
39. Blue Skies (1967)
    
40. Madame Slender Plum (1967)
    
41. Inter-Pol (1967)
    
42. King Drummer (1967)
    
43. Angel with the Iron Fists (1967)
    
44. The Mirror and the Lichee (1967)
    
45. When the Clouds Roll By (1968)
    
46. Hong Kong Rhapsody (1968)
    
47. Forever and Ever (1968)
    
48. The Millionaire Chase (1969)
    
49. Farewell, My Love (1969)
    
50. Temptress of a Thousand Faces (1969)
    
51. Torrent of Desire (1969)
    
52. The Singing Escort (1969)
    
53. Unfinished Melody (1969)
    
54. River of Tears (1969)
    
55. The Younger Generation (1970)
    

[teako170]

great to see some peoples not just watching kung fu, here's a small list of non martial art related that i found enjoyable

Thanks for that SB. While not a fan of the Huangmei genre, I definitely plan to check other non-MA drama type films from the 60s.

[xianzai]

In what started out as her playing a spoiled little brat (who I wanted to take the back of my hand to), Li Ching totally flipped-the-script here and pulled off an astonishing performance.

I watched Susanna last night. I guess I like her performance style better when she's not in realistic films. There always seems to be a bit of the Chinese opera in her movements.

That said, the movie was (often unintentionally) fun to watch, and felt very Chinese (value of sons vs. daughters, Li Ching's character's behavior was even more "shocking" because she was the younger sister, etc.).

[SamuraiDana]

great to see some peoples not just watching kung fu, here's a small list of non martial art related that i found enjoyable

1. The Kingdom and the Beauty (1959)
   
2. The Enchanting Shadow (1960)
   
3. Rear Entrance (1960)
   
4. Love Without End (1961)
   
5. Bride Napping (1962)
   
6. Madame White Snake (1962)
   
7. Dream of the Red Chamber (1962)
   
8. Yang Kwei Fei (1962)
   
9. The Love Eterne (1963)
   
10. A Maid from Heaven (1963)
    
11. Love Parade (1963)
    
12. Three Sinners (1963)
    
13. The Adulteress (1963)
    
14. Return of the Phoenix (1963)
    
15. The Empress Wu Tse-tien (1963)
    
16. The Story of Sue San (1964)
    
17. The Shepherd Girl (1964)
    
18. The Warlord and the Actress (1964)
    
19. Comedy of Mismatches (1964)
    
20. The Female Prince (1964)
    
21. The Dancing Millionairess (1964)
    
22. Beyond the Great Wall (1964)
    
23. Between Tears and Laughter (1964)
    
24. Crocodile River (1965)
    
25. The Butterfly Chalice (1965)
    
26. The West Chamber (1965)
    
27. Inside the Forbidden City (1965)
    
28. Vermillion Door (1965)
    
29. The Dawn Will Come (1966)
    
30. Rose, Be My Love (1966)
    
31. Sweet and Wild (1966)
    
32. The Blue and the Black (Part 2) (1966)
    
33. The Blue and the Black (Part 1) (1966)
    
34. The Perfumed Arrow (1966)
    
35. Black Falcon (1967)
    
36. Too Late for Love (1967)
    
37. My Dreamboat (1967)
    
38. Auntie Lan (1967)
    
39. Blue Skies (1967)
    
40. Madame Slender Plum (1967)
    
41. Inter-Pol (1967)
    
42. King Drummer (1967)
    
43. Angel with the Iron Fists (1967)
    
44. The Mirror and the Lichee (1967)
    
45. When the Clouds Roll By (1968)
    
46. Hong Kong Rhapsody (1968)
    
47. Forever and Ever (1968)
    
48. The Millionaire Chase (1969)
    
49. Farewell, My Love (1969)
    
50. Temptress of a Thousand Faces (1969)
    
51. Torrent of Desire (1969)
    
52. The Singing Escort (1969)
    
53. Unfinished Melody (1969)
    
54. River of Tears (1969)
    
55. The Younger Generation (1970)
    

Great list, although Celestial has titled some of these differently. For instance, #8, YANG KWEI FEI was released by Celestial as THE MAGNIFICENT CONCUBINE, which I believe is the title it was under when it played in the U.S. briefly some time in the 1960s. It stars Li-li Hua. Also #15 is just EMPRESS WU on Celestial's DVD. MAGNIFICENT CONCUBINE is great and it's also one of the best looking DVDs of the older titles I've seen from Celestial.

I've seen 15 on your list and have 21 others on DVD waiting to be viewed.

I'd add a couple of others: DIAU CHARN (1958) and DREAM OF THE RED CHAMBER (1977). DIAU is Shaw's first color film and stars Linda Lin Dai. Just beautiful to look at, and quite a story, too. The '77 DREAM stars Brigitte Lin and Sylvia Chang and it's an amazing film, with a whole different style of acting than we're used to in the Huangmei operas. Also, THE LAST WOMAN OF SHANG (1964), which stars Linda Lin Dai and came out a month after she died.

I saw BEYOND THE GREAT WALL recently and enjoyed that a great deal, another Huangmei opera with the great Linda Lin Dai.

[wuxiawuxia]

If you don't like Huang Mei, then go for Li Han Hsiang's (non-huang mei) masterpieces :

1. The Empress Dowager

2. The Last Tempest

These two big budget epic films are roughly based on the dramanization of the real historical accounts of the lives of Empress Dowager and Emperor GuangXu, the last monarch power during the last dynasty in China (Qing Empire), the event in these two movies led to what you will see in Bernado Bertolucci's Last Emperor.

The films featured Shaw Brother's top stars : Lisa Lu, Ti Lung, David Chiang, Ivy Ling Po, Yueh Hua, Pai Piao, Wong Yue, Ouyang Shafei, Tien Ni, Ku Feng, Ching Miao (Ching Li's father in real life), etc...

credit CelestialPictures

[Eastern Evil]

This was a favorite scene. Nice song & Li Ching is smoking as always.

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