Shanghai Blues

Wednesday, October 12 at 7:30 PM — The Auditorium at NEIU — 3701 W Bryn Mawr Ave
Tickets: $10 at the door

SHANGHAI BLUES
Directed by Tsui Hark • 1984
In Cantonese with English subtitles
The early years of iconoclastic Hong Kong filmmaker Tsui Hark’s career followed a strange path. After graduating from the University of Texas, a stint at NYC-based activist documentary outfit Third World Newsreel, a few politically explosive exploitation films, and success within the Hong Kong studio system, Tsui founded Film Workshop, the immensely popular production and distribution company responsible for most of the director’s films. Thanks to the likes of The Killer and Once Upon a Time in China, Film Workshop will always be associated with pioneering action cinema, but Tsui chose to launch his company with something different. An extended homage to M-G-M musicals and classic Hollywood screwball comedies, Shanghai Blues opens in 1937 in the titular city. Aspiring songwriter Gwok-man (Kenny Bee) is about to leave town to join the army when he encounters a charming young woman under a bridge during a bombing raid. The two agree to meet in the same spot when the war is over, but when he returns the woman he spent a decade pining for is nowhere to be found. Searching for her, he soon befriends nightclub singer Shu-Shu (Sylvia Chang) and a strange young woman inexplicably referred to as Stool (Cantopop icon Sally Yeh, hysterically funny), leading to a series of romantic entanglements and ludicrous physical comedy setpieces. This atypical focus on relationships would seem to mark Shanghai Blues as something of a departure for the director, but Tsui proves up to the task, gifting us a film that’s not only as kinetic and exhilarating as his action movies but also tender enough to stand with the very best romantic comedies. (CW)
103 min • Film Workshop • 35mm from the Academy Film Archive
Preceded by: Betty Boop in “Stopping the Show” [colorized version] (Fleischer Studios, 1932) – 8 min – 16mm