Betty Loh Ti

Hong Kong cinemas had a wide range of glamorous female stars during the golden age of the 60's and 70's. The series will take the audience on a sentimental journey to the good old days and once again look at the expansive epic costume dramas and huangmei operas in which actresses played both the male and female roles. Rare interviews with Sir Run Run Shaw, stars Ivy Ling Po, Shaw Yin Yin, Tanny Tie Ni and Cheng Pei Pei are also featured.

Li is a beautiful young woman who is engaged to a handsome scholar, Pei Shunqing. However, a rich evil man, Jia Sidao, is attracted by Li's beauty and wants to take Li as his concubine. Pei and Li then come to discuss the matter and decide to flee, but they are kidnapped by Jia's men before they can escape. Jia threatens to kill Pei, and Li finally yields but requests to see Pei for the last time. During their short conversation Li tries to persuade Pei to leave, but he insists that he will not leave without her. Li tells him that she has promised to be Jia’s concubine. Pei has to depart, angry and disappointed. Later, Li tries to kill Jia with his sword before their wedding but she is stabbed to death instead. Li's ghost then returns to avenge Jia and his men by burning them until only ashes remain.

This kung fu classic focuses on a contested succession at the Supreme Gate School. When turncoat Shen Darong kills several of the Supreme Gate students, the survivors are forced to accept him as their leader. Or are they? The students organize a tournament for Shen to prove his skills, inviting other formidable warriors in the hopes that someone can defeat him.

Travels with a Sword is a Hong Kong Martial Arts movie starring Sammo Hung

The misadventures of a beautiful but bored housewife Wang Yui-chuan and her chauvinistic salary-man husband Chang Wei-min reaches madcap proportions upon his denying her the opportunity to work outside the home. With calculating smarts, Wang takes action with the help of her scheming neighbors Lily and her mother Mrs. Hsu to change her identity and land a situation in her husband's firm where she successfully advances within the ranks in direct competition with Chang for promotion. A madcap comedy of errors ensue.

This was an adaptation of a ghost story, “A Xiu”. Liu Zigu is on his way to visit his uncle and is attracted by a beautiful girl, A Xiu. Liu meets A Xiu again in a paper fan shop owned by A Xiu's father. Liu goes to the shop every day to buy a fan and see A Xiu. One day, Liu follows his uncle to a matchmaker, who arranges for A Xiu to become his bride. The following day, Liu and A Xiu visit a temple where they meet a ghost who looks very similar to A Xiu. On the wedding day, the ghost disguises itself as A Xiu to spoil her marriage with Liu. Finally, the ghost is in the custody of a magic fan, and Liu and Xiu complete their wedding.

During the Sino-Japanese War of Resistance, the young daughter of Ma Renshan, the president of North China Hospital, was killed by the Japanese army. His second daughter Ma Xiuyun and his younger brother Ma Shaohua joined the anti-Japanese guerrillas.

Chang E is a fairy in the moon. One day she sneaks to the earth where she meets a talented archer, Hou Yi, and falls in love with him. At that time, there are nine suns in the sky and they cause serious droughts on earth. Chang then pleads with the Heavenly Empress for some magic arrows so that Hou can shoot down the spare suns. After that Hou becomes a king with overwhelming support from the people. Later, Hou becomes increasingly cruel and corrupt after ascending to the throne. He wages wars on neighbouring kingdoms and drives his people to extreme misery and hardships. Chang has tried to stop him but fails. At the end, she takes Hou’s magic arrows and returns to the moon.

Film version of Suo Lin Nang, the popular Peking opera written by Weng Ouhong.

War film set during the second Sino-Japanese war.

This is an adaptation of the folk story, “Jin Yu Nu beats her heartless groom with a cane”. Jin Yu Nu, a beggar’s daughter, is a beautiful and kind girl. On a snowy day she saves the life of a poor scholar, Mo Ji. When Mo recovers, he marries Jin with love and gratitude. Mo wins the third place in the imperial examinations, but now he is looked down upon because his wife is a beggar's daughter. Extremely embarrassed and ashamed, Mo wants to divorce but has no excuse. Jin then jumps into the river and Mo has deep regrets but it is too late. Later, Mo’s senior Ambassador Lin appreciates his talents and wants to marry him his daughter. On the wedding night, the bride orders Mo to kneel in her room and beats him hard with a cane. Not until then does Mo know his bride is actually Jin, who has been saved by Lin. At the end, Lin knows Jin still loves Mo and helps the couple reunite.

This gripping story centers on the romance between Wang Chin Lung and Sue San. Although they may be perfectly matched when it comes to their love for one other, the two come from remarkably different social ranks. While Chin Lung is the son of a respected government official, Su San is a prostitute, albeit a famous one.

Chen Hou is a chauffeur who gets caught in a mistaken identity scandal linking him to businesswoman Lok Dai. Chen was supposed to audition for a job as her chauffeur, but a proposed musical show is far more attractive to the aspiring dancer. When a rumor gets out that the two are involved in an affair, she's angry and confronts him, but his charms overwhelm her, and it's revealed that she too desires to dance. Soon she's bankrolling the affair, the sets are being built, and the singing and dancing begin!

In this dreamy romance set in China during the fourth-century, a young woman convinces her parents to allow her to dress as a boy and attend university.

Essentially an adaptation of Gaston Leroux's classic The Phantom of the Opera, Mid-Nightmare is set in a Huangmei diao teahouse theatre, which an embittered and horribly disfigured ex-performer ‘haunts', looking to extract revenge on his enemies and falling in love with a talented and beautiful, but ultimately unattainable, ingénue.

The Ching Dynasty novel The Dream of The Red Chamber is not only the most widely read, but also the most filmed book in Chinese history. The sprawling love story has proven a challenge to many filmmakers, but this version is acclaimed as the most successful. A sumptuous feature which took three years of planning and another for production, it was a hugely popular and critical hit which still stands out as a classic of both 18th century literature and 1960s moviemaking.

The ethereal Lok Dai plays a pivotal role in the 1962 Shaw Brothers screwball costume comedy The Bride Napping. Based on a chapter of author Shi Naian's The Water Margin (AKA: Outlaws of the Marsh), the action kicks off when Liu Yuen Ying (Ding Nung) is "bride-napped" by a bandit who's out to make her his wife! The bandit's sympathetic sister returns Ying, but that's only the beginning of the mistaken identities, social satires, and cross-dressing confusion as Ying's disappearance and return wreaks havoc with the locals! A delightful costume comedy that combines screwball antics, musical interludes, and even a little action, The Bride Napping is a fun and entertaining way to catch the legendary Lok Dai at her most beautiful and charming!

Long unemployed and stone-broke, Shen Jiaguang is dealt a further blow when his wife Lu Xiaoyin has fallen seriously ill and their son Xiaoguang has to quit school.

The Shen couple had six children. For years Mr Shen had been the only one to support the family. One day, Mr Shen was on a crashed plane in Singapore and everyone believed he had died. Mrs Shen then went to Singapore to prepare for his funeral and the eldest daughter took charge of the family. However, the brothers and sisters would never listen to their eldest sister. The second brother was extremely bad-tempered and always beat the others up when they did not listen to him. The fourth sister was extremely gluttonous who would never help with any housework. The eldest sister was annoyed and could do nothing.

A young scholar spends the night in a creepy temple that is said to be haunted. He doesn't believe in the rumors, but after running into a Taoist swordsman, he meets a beautiful lady ghost.

A middle-aged couple adopt a young girl.

Nurse Leng Shuxian is forced by family circumstances to marry Long Yusheng (King Hu), a grossly disfigured Quasimodo with a heart of gold. Shuxian tries but is unable to accept his deformity and they remain a couple in name only. With the appearance of Yusheng's cousin, she has to make a choice between personal happiness and family duty. From the start, Loh's character and drove the action, evoking a great intensity of emotions along the way: suffering, resignation and loneliness. Loh was lauded as the "Queen of Tragedy" after her heart-wrenching portrayal in this film. Winner of two Golden Harvest Awards – for best screenplay and best black-and-white cinematography – at the 8th Asian Film Festival in 1961.

Early Shaw Brothers crime film

Early Shaw Brothers comedy

Li's direction and Jin Yong's script always go hand-in-hand with each other. This time, their collaboration sparks again as the film seamlessly brings three short stories together through three different segments of flashbacks. Yin Zhaozong (Bao Fong) is an amour fou falling in love with a girl much younger than him. Instead, Yu Baicheng (Fu Che) is a playboy trapped by his three girlfriends. The bartender (Chiao Chuang), however, tells them how he and his wife are blessed by true love. The film not only displays Li's sensitivity to narrative structure but also his ability to cast the most suited actors for their respective roles, as such Mao Mei had a chance to demonstrate her dance talent for her debut in this movie.

This is a story of how Ru Ji, a farm girl of Chao Kuo, who sacrificed her own life to save her country and people in the year 257 B.C.