More Than Kung Fu

Where possible, I am watching and reviewing these films in chronological order. It’s a valiant effort, but an impossible goal, as the DVDs are not being released in chronological order. So, after spending the past month or two watching films released in 1967 and 1968, I am thrown back to 1962, and the world of Yellow Plum opera, with The Dream Of The Red Chamber .

With the exception of the singing, not much has changed.

Oh, sure, there’s no sign of a World War II setting, and the male lead is played by a woman, but at the core of the film, underneath all its theatrical garments, reflects the same fascination with morality and tragedy. But it’s not as if Shaw introduced these themes into Chinese art, The Dream Of The Red Chamber was almost 200 years old by the time Shaw made their film, and theirs was only one of many, the first being made in the 1930s.

Like most classical Chinese novels, The Dream Of The Red Chamber is a towering work; a daunting 120 chapters details the life and collapse of the Jia family—wealthy beyond description but lacking in male heirs. Bao Yu (Yam Kit), the only grandson of the Jia matriarch, is petulant and arrogant, more willing to revel in the freedoms that come with wealth than the responsibilities.

Bao Yu’s one redeeming feature is his love for his orphaned cousin Lin Pai Yu (Betty Loh Tih). However, every time he pledges his love, he turns around and plays grab-ass with a maid; Bao Yu does not excel at fidelity.

Bao Yu can’t shoulder all of the blame; the entire Jia family struggles with morality. With only one marriage to arrange, and very little to occupy the rest of the time, the family’s female leaders fill their days with duplicitous politics and gossip while the family’s few men simper and bow, leaving everything up to their wives or servants. Every inch of the Jia’s massive palace gleams with wealth, but it covers a hollow and dusty moral core.

Poor Pai Yu. Thrown into this lion’s den after her mother’s death, she is the film’s innocent, unaware of the suspicion and hate she attracts, simply because she has some semblance of morality. Her one hope is Bao Yu’s love; and that’s not exactly reliable. She crumbles under the weight of the combined schemes of aggressive debutant Bao Chai (Pat Ting Hung), two-faced gadfly Wang Xi Feng (Go Bu Shu) and protective mistress Xi Ren (Ding Ling).

When the first incarnation of Shaw Brothers studios, Shanghai’s Unique Film Productions, formed in 1925, one of its goals was to free Chinese plays from the restrictions of the stage.^* Film, unlike plays, can easily move from day to night, from city to country and from year to year. But the flexibility of film is nothing compared to the luxury of space afforded to novels. Red Chamber’s original 120 chapters detailed the lives of hundreds of characters, layering them with depth and motivation that the film simply can not match.

Like Shaw’s other literary adaptations, Red Chamber cuts out most of the background details and focuses on the main action; those familiar with the book will likely have no problem. I, on the other hand, had to watch the film twice before I could figure out who everyone was.

But, although the film lacks the splash of Shaw’s higher-profile haungmei, its stripped down story remains effective, retaining the religious and moral lessons that elevate it above pure melodrama. Director Yuan Chiu-feng, an inexperienced director working on his first huangmei film, could have made the story and the message easier to follow; but his efforts are not as disastrous as some critics make them out to be.

^* Zhou Chengren “Shanghai’s Unique Film Productions and Hong Kong’s Early Cinema.” The Shaw Screen: A Preliminary Study.
Available from the Hong Kong Film Archives, this book is a treasure trove of information.

Dream Of The Red Chamber
Released: August 3, 1962
Dir: Yuan Qiufeng