Archive for July, 2005
The Lark
If you like Mandarin pop from the early 60s, then you’ll likely enjoy The Lark, which is nothing more than than the barest framework of plot thrown up around song after song by chanteuse Carrie Ku Mei.
A simple tale—bumbling journalist Liu Shitai (Peter Chen Ho) trying to cozen a bit of dirt from singer Xiaoyun’s (Carrie Ku Mei) past in order to please his editor (a particularly ludicrous looking Tien Feng)—fills the gaps between the musical numbers. You get no points for guessing what happens after Xiaoyun & Liu spend a day gazing into each other’s eyes.
The plot’s irrelevance is underlined when all its loose ends are wrapped up 20 minutes before the film’s end—twenty minutes that are filled with four cameo-laden song & dance numbers.
The film’s songs and plots rarely overlap; unlike Western musicals from the 50s & 60s, the songs don’t advance the story and usually aren’t motivated by the characters. This is generally true of Shaw musicals, but it’s especially true for The Lark. In this respect The Lark is closer to the Mandarin chaqu musicals of the 1950s, in which the songs were wholly separate from the story—they even put the lyrics on screen to encourage sing-alongs.
The Lark’s musical scenes don’t include lyrics or a bouncing ball, but the songs were likely familiar enough to the audience that such aids were unnecessary. I’m sure that everyone had heard the theme song from Love Without End at least once before.
Indeed, the musical bits of The Lark are good enough that the plot becomes a bit of an irritant, especially the unending slapstick between Liu’s sister (Go Bo Shu) and her husband (Cheng Kwong-Chao). Both are funny, but the film relies on them too heavily. At two hours long, The Lark would have done well to ditch either some story or some songs; I vote for story.
The Lark
Dir: Xue Qun
Released: July 29, 1965