Early Train From Taipei (1964)

The happy lives of animals in the forest are stirred by the sudden attack of a pack of wolves. Uncle Deer comes to the rescue, and asks Birdy to notify his son, the Deer Warrior. Deer and his rival, Sika Deer fight for the love of Miss Deer while Foxy mingles with the leader of the wolves, desiring to be the prettiest in the land. A truly bizarre family (?) film from critic and pioneer Chang Ying.

Made as Taiwan’s economy took off in the 1960s, Early Train from Taipei is a classic country-to-city melodrama of development. To save her bankrupt rural family, Xiulan takes the train to Taipei to earn money. Boyfriend Huotu is horrified to find she has been tricked into becoming a dancer in a nightclub when he visits, and tries to persuade her to leave the next morning on the early train from Taipei. Tragedy piles upon tragedy in this cautionary tale, which touched a nerve with audiences and inspired a raft of sequels.

In the prelude to this martial arts film, bandits kill a former sheriff and his wife. A servant carries their three little daughters to safety, but they grow up apart. Fifteen years later, each girl sets out to seek revenge. Eldest sister Xiufeng disguises herself as a man, performing acts of chivalry as she seeks out the bandits. Along the way, she runs across her sisters, Qingfeng and Zhifeng. They are entranced by the handsome stranger. Will Qingfeng and Zhifeng figure out he is in fact their sister, Xiufeng? Will the three "feng" girls (phoenixes) find the bandits and avenge their parents?

This romantic family melodrama reworks the Madame Butterfly story in Anping, the port attached to Tainan city in southern Taiwan. Xiuqin falls for a Dutch ship’s doctor called Daley, and becomes pregnant. When he has to leave, he promises to return, but never does. Xiuqin brings up her red-haired daughter, Kimby herself. Kim falls for a medical student from Taipei, Zhiqiang, who is about to go to the USA for his studies. Is destiny about to repeat itself?