| "The Merry Wife" (1971) is a dated, gaudy, yet fun, lightweight, and entertaining 84-minute situation comedy. Li Ching is a seventeen year old high school girl called Xu Zhenzhen. Ling Yun is Mr. Lin Min, the reserved, thirty-five year old school teacher that she marries. Zhenzhen's grandmother feigns critical illness ("the doctor says I have three days [to be better, not die!]") to coax Zhenzhen and Lin into getting married. When one of the high school administrators finds out that Lin Min and Xu Zhenzhen are married(he's also concerned about the school's academic activity), he orders them to keep it confidential or both of them should leave the school. Lin and Zhenzhen try to keep their marriage secret until Zhenzhen graduates from high school. However, when the librarian, Ms. Xia (Ouyang Shafei), and a female student (Ling Ling) are attracted to Lin Min, and a male student has the hots for Xu Zhenzhen, Lin and Zhenzhen are going to have difficulty staying faithful to eachother while keeping their marriage secret.
I really dig the credit sequence for "The Merry Wife". Pictures of Li Ching are cut out and pasted onto an animated character that "creates a door" or dances around. I haven't seen a credits sequence that colorful and silly since that Kim Cattral film, "Mannequin" (1987). If "The Merry Wife" were an American film (or remade by a Western film company), it would probably cause controversy with its provocative story of a teenage girl marrying a middle aged man (some people in the Southern USA might tolerate it...). Still, Li Ching and Ling Yun have a lot of chemistry together and they were probably over eighteen years old when they appeared together in this film. The Celestial/Shaw DVD case claims that this film is like "To Sir with Love" meets "Gidget". I guess that juxtaposition is justifiable to some extent.
The comedy in this flick is quite subtle: Zhenzhen tries to ditch a schoolboy, who has the hots for her, by trying to get him drunk with brandy. When the kid isn't looking, Zhenzhen pours her glass of brandy into another glass sitting on her lap. There's also another scene where a male teacher admits to Lin Min that he has the hots for Zhenzhen. Lin Min gives him a blank, white sheet of paper and he leaves the room. The schoolteacher flips the sheet of paper to find out that Zhenzhen is married to Lin (i.e. a wedding photo). The school teacher is shocked, but he finds some happiness with a woman who has no luck trying to get a date with Lin. As for Li Ching, I have become a Mex-American, eccentric, xenophile Gen-Y fanboy of the "Baby Queen". She demonstrates that women don't have to look like they've been on a heroin binge for a week to maintain a pleasing, voluptuous figure or be beautiful. She's also charming and a solid actress; those piercing eyes, those dimples, her curves, and that warm smile are many factors that I like about her. Does anyone have any dirt on Li Ching (aside from her "jade vase" role in "Sexy Girls of Denmark"). If anyone has reliable information on Shaw Brothers actress Li Ching, please e-mail me at rudeboy8080@yahoo.com. Now, back to the review. "The Merry Wife" suffers from its dated look (Li Ching's hair styles, go-go boots, disco floors, the groovy soundtrack, etc.), but this film is still a fun, lightweight romantic comedy that manages to please. |
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