Tai Kwun Movie Steps x Hong Kong Film Archive - A Touch of Youth (Sept - Oct 2023)

Tai Kwun Movie Steps x Hong Kong Film Archive - A Touch of Youth

Teen films were introduced to Hong Kong from Hollywood in the 1950s. Through integration and adaptation by local filmmakers in tandem with an increasingly mature star system, the genre became a timeless favourite among film buffs, propelling countless vibrant newcomers to stardom. With Hong Kong being a place where Chinese and Western cultures converge, our local teen films often depict the pursuit of Western chic and feature an abundance of song and dance in a display of youthful energy. However, they also illustrate the conflict between tradition and modernity, shedding light on the anxieties of growing up, the rebelliousness and restlessness, as well as the yearnings for love and dreams, experienced by young people in different eras. Each scene is like a page from the diary of an urban youth projected on the silver screen...

‘A Touch of Youth’ has specially selected five teen films from the 1950s to 1980s, which will be screened free of charge at the Tai Kwun Laundry Steps. Let a host of youthful idols take you back to your salad days with their dazzling charm!

Co-presented by
Tai Kwun and Hong Kong Film Archive, the Leisure and Cultural Services Department

Every Sunday at 5pm
Location: Laundry Steps, Tai Kwun
Free Admission

Spring Song

Director: Evan Yang
Screenwriter: Evan Yang, Wang Zhibo
Production Company: MP & GI
Cast: Grace Chang, Jeanette Lin Tsui, Peter Chen Ho, Roy Chiao, Chen Yun
1959 | B&W | Blu-ray | Mandarin | Chinese and English Subtitles  | 103 minutes

Campus provides the setting for many teen films. More than half a century ago in Hong Kong, high school was the usual backdrop for this genre. But Spring Song by Evan Yang was, in that era, one of the very few Hong Kong films set in the university. Starring Grace Chang from Mambo Girl (1957) and Jeanette Lin Tsui, nicknamed ‘Student’s Sweetheart’, this youthful piece follows two freshman girls’ college lives in Hong Kong. Chang portrays a girl who is good at singing and dancing, and her performances in the film, including an excerpt from a famous Kunqu piece, will surely delight those looking for great entertainment. The other leading role played by Lin excels in all sorts of sports, Scenes of archery, water skiing, motorbike-riding and ball games offer the audience the vitality that characterises teenage girls. The two befriend each other at college orientation, live together in a dormitory, attend parties and do sports hand in hand, and fight with each other for boys. The film reflects the bourgeois lifestyle of immigrants from the Mainland in the 1950s, in a unique way that only Cathay could have delivered.

Courtesy of Cathay-Keris Films Pte Ltd

You Are My Love

Director: Chu Kea
Co-director: Ho Hoi-ki, Chu Yat-hung
Screenwriter: Lo Ling
Production Company: Sea & Sky, Golden City
Cast: Josephine Siao, Woo Fung, Pearl Au Kar-wai, To Ping, Fanny Fan Lai, Roy Chiao, Chu Tin-wai

1967 | Colour | Blu-ray | Cantonese | Chinese and English Subtitles  | 97 minutes

Award-winning actress Josephine Siao plays the energetic but somewhat rebellious little sister in You Are My Love, a film that follows three sisters’ ups and downs that begin with this youngest vone’s jealousy. In the film, Pearl Au Kar-wai stars as a very charming actress, who is loved by every person around her. The little sister envies her sibling’s achievements but what she does impulsively has caused permanent harm to the family. Besides Siao and Au, Woo Fung, still an active TV actor today, took up the role of Au’s once boyfriend, and Fanny Fan Lai and Roy Chiao, well-known for their roles in Mandarin films, took a bold step to partake in this Cantonese film. Director Chu Kea, best known for his period dramas, turned to a contemporary-set film this time, and successfully delivered the film’s sense of modernity, probably with help from his co-directors Ho Hoi-ki and Chu Yat-hung, who was his sister. The opening scene of an orchestra performance even reminds the audience of Hollywood movies.

Mary, I Love You

Director/Screenwriter: Lui Kay
Production Company: Lui Kai
Cast: Connie Chan Po-chu, Lui Kay, Lok Kung, Lai Man, Feng Tsui-fan
1969 | Colour | Blu-ray | Cantonese | Chinese and English Subtitles  | 102 minutes

Lui Kay joined hands with Connie Chan Po-chu to portray couples in numerous films, through which he must have developed his own way to stage the romance with her in the most touching manner. In 1969, he made his directorial debut Mary, I Love You with her, of which he was also the screenwriter, presenter, and, of course, the lead actor. Lui plays a young man who is determined to marry his girlfriend even if that means he has to break away from his family. Chan brings the title character Mary to live, a girl who is loyal to her loved ones, perseverant in face of tough situations, and charming in her Peranakan costume. Apart from the romance between the two, the film also depicts the unfailing friendship between Mary and her classmates. Like all teen movies in that era, the film contains quite a few singing and dancing scenes, but in a Southeast Asian setting. The theme song features two versions: one male version by Lui and one female version by Chan, which was a very clever arrangement in those days.

Once Upon A Rainbow

Director: Ng Siu-wan
Screenwriter: Hoh Hong-kiu, Wong Kar-wai, Lo Man-sang, Yee Chung-man
Production Company: Cinema City
Cast: Patricia Chong, Jade Hsu, Mariann Wong, Wu Hsiao-kang, Andy Lau
1982 | Colour | Blu-ray | Cantonese | Chinese and English Subtitles  | 88 minutes

Once Upon A Rainbow features a star-studded cast and crew, only that they made their names years after the release of this film. Today’s mega-star Andy Lau made his big screen debut in this title, so did the now internationally renowned director Wong Kar-wai who jointly penned its script with today’s award-winning art director Yee Chung-man. The eponymous theme song, composed by Violet Lam and written by her brother Andrew Lam, is the first movie theme song for singer Annabelle Louie. The film gives a glimpse of Hong Kong’s entertainment sector through two young girls’ pursuits of dream and love. Tin-wei (Jade Hsu) enrols in a TV stations’s acting class, while her high school bestie Angie (Patricia Chong) works for a record label after leaving school. Tin-wei falls in love with her classmate Ka-ming (Wu Hsiao-kang), who has a crush on Angie instead…The only cinematic work by TV director Ng Siu-wan, the film’s cast and crew and its subject matter make it seems a prelude to Hong Kong’s popular culture heydays in the 1980s.

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Three post-screening sharing sessions will take place at Laundry Steps to share the context and behind-the-scene stories of the films selected in A Touch of Youth. Stay after the screenings and let us know your thoughts after watching the films.
* All post-screening sharing sessions will be conducted in Cantonese

Post-screening sharing of Sweet Girl in Terror
Date: 10 September 2023
Time: 6:30pm (after the screening Sweet Girl in Terror)
Guest speaker: Eric Tsang Siu-wang
 

Post-screening sharing of You Are My Love
Date: 24 September 2023
Time: 6:37pm (after the screening of You Are My Love)
Guest speaker: Sam Ho

Post-screening sharing of Once Upon a Rainbow
Date: 8 October 2023 (postponed to 29 October 2023)
Time: 6:30pm (after the screening of Once Upon a Rainbow)
Guest Speaker: Angela Law