The Kingdom And The Beauty: Viewer Comments

'The Kingdom and the Beauty' (1959) is the Li Han Hsiang-directed film adaptation of a Huangmei opera that lauched the genre (or subgenre) in Hong Kong cinema (before the genre's popularity diminished in Hong Kong and it simply...vanished...and filmmakers, so far, have had no luck bringing it back...) and gave it a jumpstart. It's kind of odd, for me personally, to see the latter day Huangmei opera Shaw films first and check out a seminal film like 'Kingdom and the Beauty' (made prior) afterwards. I saw all three 'Back to the Future' movies ('Back to the Future: The Ride' was fun, but it was more of a tie-in product than a "sequel") in reverse order (when I viewed each film in chronological order, the films seemed more consistent). 'Kingdom and the Beauty' is a fun and lightweight film...until it switches gears and it turns into a tragic melodrama. A young, handsome, frivolous Emperor Chu Te Cheng (Zhao Lei) travels with an imperial guard to Kiang Nan, even though his advisors are against it. In a nearby village, he becomes smitten with a lovely, peasant girl named Li Feng (the late Linda Lin Dai) during a Spring Festival. Ta Niu (played by well-known director King Hu), Li Feng's friend, wonders about Chu Te Cheng's dubious character. After being stuck at Li Feng's place overnight, at a tavern/domicile, Chu puts the "moves" on Li Feng and we get to see another of those implicit, metaphorical love scenes (with the goldfish, the choir on the soundtrack, and clothes hanging near the side of the bed). Imperial troops escort Chu back to the Forbidden City and promises to come back for Li Feng. This is where 'Kingdom and the Beauty' goes from a sweet, lightweight romantic-comedy to a dark and downbeat melodrama. Li Feng gives birth to Chu's bastard son, the townspeople are talking smack about Li Feng behind her back, and Chu has forgotten about Li Feng, back in the Forbidden City! Chu can't have the Kingdom AND the Beauty; will he ever honor his promise to Li Feng?

At times, 'Kingdom' is very fun, entertaining, filled with catchy musical numbers, and loaded with color and, at times, it's downbeat and melodramatic. The late Linda Lin Dai's exuberant performance alone makes the film worth a look. There's a nice scene where Ta Niu sees how depressed and melancholy Li Feng is; he tries to mitigate her pain by going town to town, telling people (while clapping wood and singing) about Chu's philandering (even against the adverse conditions of bad weather, starvation, and getting caught by the authorities!). I can see why Lin Dai is such a popular starlet: she's a beauty, her facial expressions can be like cold grimaces or a warm, sweet smile, she had character, and she was a solid actress. She was looped over by Ting Jing during the musical numbers, but we do get to hear her voice on the synch-soundtrack; many HK films were/are filmed in MOS (silent) and the dialouge, music, sound effects, etc. are looped in later on. It's unfortunate that she commited suicide in 1964 (many starlets commited suicide in those days, for some reason). King Hu was a pretty good actor (and a director, as well); he even has a nice sense of humor that's appealing. In 'Kingdom', Ta Niu mocks Chu when he tries to search for Li Feng. Chu tries to massage Li Feng's hand as they search for crickets. Without taking notice, Chu accidentally massages Ta Niu's hand and Ta Niu bites (not too hard) Chu's hand. The multi-talented Li Han Hsiang does a fine job crafting 'Kingdom and the Beauty', aside from its unevenness and flaws. We also get to the "Shaw logo" when it was simply "Shaws", and not the SB logo that the studio would later use. Yang Chi Ching, Ma Lam, Kok Lee Yan, and many others co-star. 'Kingdom and the Beauty' loses a lot of fun and color 2/3 of the way into the film, but it's still a very good film.