
Known for
9.5The noted actress Li Li-hua, star of more than sixty films since 1947, beautifully portrays the drugged, then disgraced wife of a peddler in the waning days of the Ching Dynasty. To make matters worse, she’s soon framed for her husband’s murder by her rapist - the son of the local magistrate! And even that isn’t the end of her woes. It’s best to have a box of tissues nearby as two expert directors ratchet up the emotional suspense in this consummate tearjerker.
The Adulteress
1963
9.0This Classic Seductive tale of two snakes who assume human forms will send chills of pleasure down viewers' backs. The Lovely Linda Lin Dai (Les Belles, The Kingdom And The Beauty) and margaret Tu Chuan (The Dream of The Red Chamber) play the two sister serpents, Pak Su-cheng and Ching Ching. Su-cheng meets Hsu Hsien (Chao Lei) one day and recognizes him as her savior in another life 1,000 years ago. She marries him to reward him but the snake-human union brings about problems beyond imagination.
Madam White Snake
1962
8.0The Story of Qin Xiang-Lian is a Hong Kong Chinese Opera musical starring Jackie Chan in a child role.
The Story of Qin Xiang-Lian
1964
8.0Long 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 Pistol
1961
7.0Seventh sister of the celestial world goes down to earth to marry Dong Yong, a young man sold to servitude. However the Jade Emperor orders her to go back to the immortal world.
A Maid from Heaven
1963
9.0Meal Time is a comedy film about all the mess with housework that director Yan and his wife had to go through after the maid gave up her job.
Meal Time
1953
Film credits
1960s · 18 titles
9.5The noted actress Li Li-hua, star of more than sixty films since 1947, beautifully portrays the drugged, then disgraced wife of a peddler in the waning days of the Ching Dynasty. To make matters worse, she’s soon framed for her husband’s murder by her rapist - the son of the local magistrate! And even that isn’t the end of her woes. It’s best to have a box of tissues nearby as two expert directors ratchet up the emotional suspense in this consummate tearjerker.
The Adulteress
1963
9.0This Classic Seductive tale of two snakes who assume human forms will send chills of pleasure down viewers' backs. The Lovely Linda Lin Dai (Les Belles, The Kingdom And The Beauty) and margaret Tu Chuan (The Dream of The Red Chamber) play the two sister serpents, Pak Su-cheng and Ching Ching. Su-cheng meets Hsu Hsien (Chao Lei) one day and recognizes him as her savior in another life 1,000 years ago. She marries him to reward him but the snake-human union brings about problems beyond imagination.
Madam White Snake
1962
8.0The Story of Qin Xiang-Lian is a Hong Kong Chinese Opera musical starring Jackie Chan in a child role.
The Story of Qin Xiang-Lian
1964
8.0Long 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 Pistol
1961
7.0Seventh sister of the celestial world goes down to earth to marry Dong Yong, a young man sold to servitude. However the Jade Emperor orders her to go back to the immortal world.
A Maid from Heaven
1963
6.5This 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.
The Story of Sue San
1964
NRSingaporean diva Li Ailian has arrived in Hong Kong to further her singing career. Xu Zhaofeng helps her land a job at Spring Wind Palace. Provoked by jealousy, Xu's long-time girlfriend Tao Haiyin, a local diva, insists on performing at the Palace, too. And when two divas strut their stuff, it's great tunes and hot action. Haiyin's brother Zhengsheng, the bandleader, has fallen out with his sister due to his infatuation with Li. Li misunderstands Zhengsheng's intentions initially but his devotion speaks volumes. Haiyin and Xu also reconcile.
It's Always Spring
1962
A Shaw Brothers crime film starring Paul Chang Chung and Pat Ting Hung.
To Catch a Murderer
1963
NRThe 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.
When the Peach Blossoms Bloom
1960
8.0Ling Bo is Lin, a young man engaged to the daughter of a rich man, who now despises Lin because of his family's declining status. Lin visits his beloved fiancee before he heads towards the imperial city to participate in the civil service examination, only to find her maid lying dead in blood. Lin is then accused of murder. How can Judge Bao prove his innocence?
The Crimson Palm
1964
NRComedy of Mismatches begins with widow Sun who single-handedly raises her son Yu Lang (Chin Feng) and daughter Zhu Yi (Li Hsiang Chun). One day, Mother Sun sends her children to the temple, where Yu Lang encounters Hui Niang (Pat Ting). Artist Xu Ya is also at the temple, praying that his daughter Wen Gu (Carrie Ku) will find a good husband. Soon after, Wen Gu encounters nobleman's son Pei Zheng (Wai Mao) and the two fall in love at first sight.
Comedy of Mismatches
1964
NRHistorical Drama
The Birth of the Monkey King
1962
10.0A Shaw Brothers comedy starring Peter Chen Ho and Fanny Fan Lai.
Kiss for Sale
1961
6.5The husband-and-wife team of Ivy Ling Po and Chin Han returned to another Huangmei Opera classic after Lady General Hua Mu-Lan. Helmed by Chow Sze-loke and written by Chang Cheh, the story revolved around two intellectual siblings, Ching Feng-sheng (Chin Feng) and Ching Feng-hsiao (Ivy Ling Po), who were constantly abused by their stepmother Hsia (Kao Pao-shu). Feng-hsiao was engaged to Li Ru-lung (Chin Han) since birth, but the greedy Hsia forced him to forfeit the marriage. When Ru-lung refused, Hsia framed him for thievery and put him behind bars. To rescue her lover, Feng-hsiao dressed as a young man and went to the capital. She then used Ru-lung's name to enter the national exam and was ranked first place. Impressed by Feng-hsiao, the Emperor decided to let her wed the Princess (Fang Ying). On the wedding night, Feng-hsiao revealed the truth to the Princess...
The Female Prince
1964
No synopsis available yet.
床位大少
1964
10.0Film version of Suo Lin Nang, the popular Peking opera written by Weng Ouhong.
Lucky Purse
1966
Xin Liangxiang lost his job and fell into poverty. One day, his wife fell ill, and Xiang stole milk to feed his young child. He was caught by a fat policeman, who fortunately let him off the hook. Later, Xiang, at Jia De's instigation, tried to swindle a jewelry store owner. After the scheme failed, he was arrested again by the fat policeman and sentenced to three months in prison. The fat policeman promised to take care of his family, for which Xiang was extremely grateful.
Larceny
1961
NRThis is a Shaw Brothers production
Oriole, the Heroine
1960
1950s · 29 titles
9.0Meal Time is a comedy film about all the mess with housework that director Yan and his wife had to go through after the maid gave up her job.
Meal Time
1953
9.0Wan Jialiang, a factory worker, and Lu Xiuzhen fall in love and live together. Hou Liang is supported by Dong Yaqin, his cousin, and their lives improve. Desperate to get rid of Jane, who is pregnant, Jialiang plans to make her fall into the sea and die.
An Appointment After Dark
1958
NRMarriage Angle is a Hong Kong Mandarin-language feature film of the drama genre, written and directed by Wang Yin, produced by Shaw Brothers Studio, Liu Chi and Chow Sze-Ching were the cinematographers.
Marriage Angle
1954
NRA Shaw and Sons production
A Kiss for Me
1958
No known plot
The Thirteen Grand Tutors
1951
7.0Li Han-Hsiang directed film.
Little Angels of the Streets
1957
8.0A Shaw Brothers romantic drama
Where Is My Bride?
1958
NRAn early Musical by the Hsin Hwa Motion Picture Company.
The Moon-Blanch'd Land
1952
9.0This is a historical drama that was produced by the Shaw Brothers Studio.
Sorrowful Glory
1953
A Shaw and Sons production.
You Are My Soul
1958
NRA Midsummer Night's Love is about a couple, Li Yuqin and Zhang Tianshi, who faked their marriage but the lies became real, unleashing a series of comic situations.
A Midsummer Night's Love
1953
NRA Shaw and Sons production
Springtime in Paradise
1957
9.0Loosely based on Maxim Gorky's The Lower Depths
The Frosty Night
1957
7.0A Hong Kong historical drama
Golden Lotus
1957
9.0The 3rd film in the Three Dolls series
3 Dolls Go to Hong Kong
1959
8.5A Shaw and Sons production.
He Has Taken Him for Another
1957
8.0Nightmare is a 1953 Hong Kong thriller film written and directed by Yin Wang. The film was produced by Runde Shaw for Shaw and Sons.
Nightmare
1953
8.0A Shaw Brothers production
The Pink Murder
1959
8.0Circus trapeze artist Liu Xiaoniu runs away from the circus. While away, she's tricked by a playboy and then the police mistake her for a prostitute. She returns to the circus but her adoptive father, Liu Yingjie, suffers an accident.
The Greatest Circus on Earth
1957
8.0A Songstress Called Hong Lingyan (歌女紅菱艷) aka Tears of Songstress is a 1953 Hong Kong musical drama film directed by Tu Kuang-Chi. The film was a co-production by Shaws Film Company and Far East Motion Picture Company, and is based on the screenplay by Pan Liu-Dai.
Tears of Songstress
1953
9.0A Shaw and Sons production.
Miss Evening Sweet
1957
9.0Spies, Military Documents and Traitors.
The Lady of Mystery
1957
NRDuring a night when Mei Liang and his girlfriend, Sima Qiu-Hong are on the same stage during a play for the Dajiang Theater Company, they receive a visit from Qiu-Hong's former classmate, Xie Yu-Lan. Under Yu-Lan's insistence, Mei Liang decides to break up with Qiu-Hong.
A Double-Faced Man
1952
Sweet Song For You (勾魂艷曲) aka Song of Romance is a 1952 Hong Kong musical romance film directed by Yin Wang. The film was produced by Runde Shaw for Shaw and Sons and is based on the screenplay by Tan Liu.
Song of Romance
1952
NRSmash Up (1952 film) (Chinese 蛇蝎美人) also known by the aliases: The Vicious Beauty and Destroy; is a Hong Kong drama film directed by Bu Wan-Cang and produced by Shaw Brothers Studio. It starred Bai Guang, Wong Ho and Yiu Kwang-Chao.
Smash Up
1952
No synopsis available yet.
The Blazing Charmer
1958
A Shaw and Sons production.
The Dances of Charm
1957
8.0A Shaw and Sons production.
Autumn Affair
1956
8.0Gu Lingxiu's dream of becoming an actress is opposed by her grandmother. Her father Zhongqi remains ambivalent. Years ago, Zhongqi was in love with a Peking opera diva Hua Yanhong, but the lovers were separated by the matriarch. Regretful of the mistake, the matriarch discards her prejudice and allows Lingxiu to pursue her career. She also urges Zhongqi to look for Hua.
The Girl with a Thousand Faces
1959
1940s · 5 titles
6.7The film focused on a conflict between Empress Dowager Cixi, her son Guangxi (the nominal emperor) and his wife, Zhen Fei.
Sorrows of the Forbidden City
1948
No synopsis available yet.
Peach Blossom Lake
1941
NRA female ghost appeared in a barren mound near Yangjiazhuang, wailing every night and terrifying the villagers. The feathered priest of the God of Wealth Temple tells the villagers to offer food and paper money to the female ghost, and the female ghost is indeed much quieter, but she only takes food and not paper money. When a young man, Wang Yuan Sheng, comes back from a trip, he does not see his child bride, Xiu Fang. His mother tells him that Xiu Fang has been having an affair with someone since he left and is pregnant, so she has already run away from home. Knowing that Xiu Fang is pregnant with her own child, Yuan Sheng does not believe his mother's story. Mother Wang is frightened by the ghost's screams and falls ill. Yuan Sheng becomes suspicious of the ghost's true identity because the ghost only takes food.
A Soul at Night
1941
NRYuerong is an downtrodden orphan girl. She is taken in by Erhe, a rickshaw driver, whose neighbors, recognizing her intelligence and singing talent, recommend her for opera lessons. However, the manager Liu soon begins to take advantage of her.
The Night
1941
A young woman struggling by as a street performer is noticed for her enchanting voice.
Wandering Songstress
1940
1930s · 8 titles
9.0Probably the most sheerly entertaining of all the films made in 1930s Shanghai by 'underground' leftists, this riff on The Prisoner of Zenda is funny and engaging from first to last. The irresistible Yuan Muzhi (director of Street Angel the following year) plays both Li Tao, a revolutionary on the run, and Liu Yuanjie, an American-Chinese teacher visiting China with his fiancée. Liu is mistaken for Li and thrown into jail; Li teams up with the fiancée (Chen Bo'er, Yuan's real life wife) to get him out of prison and into the spirit of revolution. Ying Yunwei (who started out playing female roles in Chinese opera) uses chiaroscuro lighting, highly mobile camerawork and zippy pacing to give it maximum impact, but it's Yuan who really keeps you watching.
Unchanged Heart in Life and Death
1936
NRNo synopsis available yet.
Lady Meng Jiang
1939
7.0Lady Windermere's Fan, Oscar Wilde's play on moral values, is adapted for a setting in Shanghai. Young wife Meilin mistakenly believes her husband is having an affair with a social butterfly and decides to leave for a suitor. Her reputation, about to be ruined because of a misplaced fan, is saved by the social butterfly who turns out to be …Unlike typical Chinese scripts on parental love, the understated familial love in the original play is aligned with Li's preference for the undramatic. Motherly love is portrayed indirectly while emotions run strong yet subdued in the film. Poking fun at social culture of the times, this is Li's earliest extant feature film in a modern setting and a showcase of his modernistic and crisp directorial approach.
The Young Mistress' Fan
1939
NRAfter a flood, the Sea Charity Association sends Liu Hao Ming to a village to direct the burial of corpses. Hao Ming meets the singer Ruyun and her father there, and advises Ruyun not to sing a beautiful song, but to sing “The Beauty of Yu” instead, which Ruyun obeys to the full applause of the audience, but arouses the displeasure of a butcher, Sa-zuo, and others. When the flood comes again, the village people go to Shanghai to evacuate. Sa-zuo and the others ask Hao-ming for help, and Hao-ming leads them to an empty mansion to spend the night, where they run into Ruyun's father and learn that Ruyun has been separated. A female ghost haunts the house and they all escape from the house. Hao Ming does not see Ruyun's father and goes back to look for him, but he sees that the female ghost is Ruyun.
Horror Night
1938
7.3This movie is based on the famous Chinese folklore that is more than one and a half millennium old. The same folklore was what the Disney animation Mulan is based on, and similarly, it was what many Chinese movies/operas/plays based on.
Mulan Joins the Army
1939
6.2Four students in Shanghai have recently finished university. All are unemployed. Xu contemplates suicide but his friend Zhao talks him out of it. Zhao lives in a shabby room with just a flimsy wall of planks separating him from the room behind. Miss Yang, in town to take a factory job, moves in behind. Her nails into the wall knock Zhao's photos down. The unseen neighbours start playing tit for tat... Zhao gets a job as proofreader at a newspaper. He sees that pretty girl on the tram to work every day. He doesn't know her, but it's Miss Yang... Zhao is assigned to cover labour conditions for the paper. He is sent to a factory, the one where Miss Yang works...
Crossroads
1937
8.0A hostess in Shanghai invites her secondary schoolmates to a reunion. They each reminisce about their lives, with some having difficulties in marriage or career. Some led destructive lives, while others contributed to the country.
The Classic for Girls
1934
7.0This is one of the rare gems in early Chinese musical films that still exists today. Nancy Chan plays a naïve young woman who can sing and dance. Under the arrangement of her stepfather, she becomes a star and indulges in the glitz and glamour of the entertainment world before getting married to a wealthy heir in Nanyang. Yet her husband is cruel and unfaithful, leading her to divorce and return to her parents in Shanghai. She is set for a comeback to the stage. Her young daughter suffers from a serious illness. A remake of the Bu Wanchang’s silent film The Light of Maternal Instinct (1933), this film takes cues from Hollywood musicals, resulting in an elegant and lively fusion of camera movement and musical numbers. The film also reflects the harsh reality of China in the 1930s and the pathos of popular literature by combining morals, entertainment and social commentary to show that changes in the idea of femininity is a symbol of progress.
The Angel
1939
