Ranked as No.1 in movieview(the No.1 movie magazine in China)’s 100 Years of Hongkong Cinema, The Love Eterne is more than a classic,it’s more like a legend in terms of its achievements and importance in Hongkong cinema history.If you’d like to see something quintessential Chinese,this one should be your first choice.
The Artform
All the dialogues in the film is sung in Huangmei tone.It originated as a form of rural folksong and dance that has been in existence for the last 200 years and possibly longer. The music is performed with a pitch that hits high and stays high for the duration of the song. It is unique in the sense that it does not sound like the typical rhythmic Chinese opera.
The Taiping rebellion occupied Hubei and brought Huangmei opera to its homeland, Guangdong.The theme of Huangmei opera began to expand with its initial introduction in Hong Kong via the 1959 film The Kingdom and the Beauty. The art form is believed to have come from the massive wave of immigrants from mainland China to Hong Kong in the 1950s. The film that peaked the music genre was this very film.
The Film
The Love Eterne (Liang Shan Bo and Zhu Ying Tai) is a 1963 Hong Kong musical film of the Huangmei opera genre directed by Li Han Hsiang,one of the major directors in Shaw Brothers Studio. It is based on the Chinese classic story The Butterfly Lovers, which is sometimes referred to as the Romeo and Juliet of the Far East.So even you have never heard of the story,the plot should sound familiar to you.
So what made this film a quintessential Chinese film? It broke the limitation of low budget and simple studio settings,the richness of the cinematic language including the beautiful camera movement,the magnificent production design,the perfect combination of the music and image,all those elements added up to a brand new musical genre.Especially the farewell scenes,the fantastic classic Chinese settings really showed some Chinese painting quality in them.It made the audiences believe that all classic Chinese images should like this.Ang Lee watched it when he was only nine years old,after several decades,he promoted the typical Oriental images to Western audiences by Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon.
The Influence
Speaking of the influence it made at that time,there was nothing quite like it.It was showed in 196 consecutive days in Taiwan,the final box-office reached 8 million New Taiwan Dollars,easily broke the box-office record,there were 900 thousands of tickets sold,which was three times as the entire Taiwan population.
The more legendary thing about this film is its star-making power,Ivy Ling Po,the actress who acted as a man in the film,became a huge star after it was shown.The popularity was like Greta Garbo in 1930s,there were no other news other than her everyday life in media.When it came to the award season,the Golden Horse committee had big problem of deciding if to award her with Best Actors Award or Best Actress Award.
In a larger picture,it changed the scope of the entire Hongkong film industry.Li walked out of the competition between Shaw Brothers and Cathay ,and founded the first private film company in Taiwan called Grand Films.It brought the first real film industry to Taiwan and grounded the rise of Taiwan cinema afterwards.
If you feel like to watch it,which I strongly recommend,help yourself here.