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Feel the urge to sing and dance? The Hong Kong Film Archive (HKFA) could be your next favourable choice! The HKFA's exhibition hall has been transformed into the "Wild Rose Night Club" that encompasses the "Back to Dreamland" Exhibition being held from now until April 14.
Together with all the filmic visuals and popular songs from the musicals in the Cathay movies in 1950s and 1960s like the "Mambo Girl", "Carmen" and "Ja Jam Bo", film buffs can wander down memory lane to the splendors of a bygone era in the glamorous Cathay dreams.
The exhibition is to accompany the HKFA's new programme "Back To Dreamland: Cathay Showcase" which will feature 29 films during the 26th Hong Kong International Film Festival from Wednesday (March 27) to April 7.
In addition to a brief profile on Cathay's founder, the late Loke Wan-Tho and the Cathay film studio, photo and film stills on various veteran superstars including Lucilla You Min, Grace Chang, Julie Yeh Feng, Jeanette Lin Cui, Linda Lin Dai, Betty Loh Tih, Wang Lai, Bai Bing, Christine Pai Lu-ming, Chang Yang, Peter Chen Hou, Kelly Lai Chen and others are displayed. The exhibition opens daily from 10am to 8pm (except Thursday).
The "Back to Dreamland: Cathay Showcase" has drawn enthusiastic response from audiences. Tickets were snapped up very rapidly and some of the screenings were already fully booked. Most of the screenings will be held at the HKFA and two of the films "Darling Stay at Home" and "Sun, Moon and Star" Parts I & II will also be screened respectively at 7.15pm on April 3 and 2.15pm on April 5 at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre (HKCC) Grand Theatre.
The award-winning masterpiece "Sun, Moon and Star" with Julie Yeh Feng as the tough and radiant "Sun", Grace Chang as the pure and gentle "Moon" and Lucilla You Min as the delicate and self-sacrificing "Star", is one of the most famous epics of Cathay's productions. The film earned You Min a Golden Horse Award for the Best Actress. The March 30 screening is already full; there are still seats for the screening at the HKCC.
"Classical Beauty" Betty Loh Tih portrays a total different look from her usual performances in the romantic comedy "Darling Stay at Home". The battle of sexes has taken up new grounds at the office in the 1950s, Loh plays a defiant wife who refuses to stay at home. Instead, she puts on disguise and works at the same hotel as her chauvinistic husband and even becomes his superior!
Cathay Showcase is part of the two-segment "Back To Dreamland" programme. The second part "Back to Dreamland: Cathay Retrospective", which serves as a comprehensive review of Cathay's work, will screen 49 films from April 12 to June 9 at the HKFA, the Hong Kong Science Museum Lecture Hall and the Shatin Town Hall Activities Room.
There will also be a "Cathay Story" exhibition from April 26 to June 2. Historical artifacts including themes on various famous stars and director Wang Tianlin as well as film veteran's moving accounts of the past will be put on display.
In addition, a "MP & GI" symposium will be organized by the HKFA in collaboration with the Lingnan University. Seminars on the distinct features and aesthetics of Cathay productions will be held at the Lingnan campus on April 8 and 9 and the HKFA cinema on April 10 and 11. The seminars will be conducted in Cantonese and Mandarin and some Cathay stars have been specially invited for the April 11 afternoon session. Members of the public are welcomed.
Not to be missed is the 400-page new bilingual publication, "The Cathay Story", which will be available soon. The book offers clues on how Cathay and MP & GI become a myth in the Hong Kong cinema and what accounts for the stars' achievements.
Cathay produced not only box office successes and well-received films in the 50s and 60s, but also created an elegant "nouveau" bourgeois lifestyle that had become an integral part of many movie-goers' growing experience.
Apart from musical piece like "Mambo Girl", "The Wild, Wild Rose" and comedies like "Our Sister Hedy", "Lady on the Roof", other highlights are a number of martial arts films including "Mad, Mad, Mad Sword", "Escorts over Tiger Hills" and "From the Highways" as well as Malay movies "Curse of the Vampire" and "Hang Jebat".
Tickets for the screenings of "Back to Dreamland: Cathay Showcase and Retrospective" are priced at $30 while the screenings of "Sun, Moon and Star" Parts I & II at the HKCC are sold at $55. Half-priced concessionary tickets are available for senior citizens, people with disabilities and full-time students. Ticket arrangement for the "Cathay Showcase" will follow that for the 26th HKIFF. For "Cathay Retrospective", there will be a 20 per cent discount for each purchase of five or more screenings.
Enquiries can be made at 2739 2139 or 2734 2900. Website: www.filmarchive.gov.hk. Internet booking can be made at www.urbtix.gov.hk and telephone reservation at 2734 9009.
End/Monday, March 25, 2002
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