Love Eterne
UCLA Film and Television Archive’s ongoing Festival of Preservation screened Li Hanxiang’s charming Love Eterne (1963) last night, one of the most popular Hong Kong films of all time. It’s a romantic musical of the accessible huangmei opera genre derived from folk songs, consisting of short stanzas and choruses that are often sung by non-professionals. The movie is a colorful, widescreen Shaw Brothers production; the famed King Hu (1966’s Dragon Inn) is credited as having directed the “action scenes,” but what those might be are anyone’s guess–everything but the final scenes is a placid and cheerful costume drama. Nevertheless, …
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