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驚弓鳥 (1964)
The Frightened Bird


Reviewed by: dleedlee
Date: 08/19/2004

Rather cheaply made, but still entertaining thanks to the talented cast.

Chan Ping is about to be sent overseas to study by her father and to keep her away from Keung the office manager of dubious repute. Keung (Keung Chung Ping), meanwhile, is also having an affair with the pregnant Chi Ying Hung (Lee Heung Kam), an opera singer. After Chan Ping’s father (Lee Pang Fei) dies in an auto accident, Chan Ping (Lam Fung), now married to Keung, has a similar accident, plunging off a cliff during a night time drive. Now suspicious of Keung, Chan Ping is on the lam, when she is befriended by Ming (Cheung Ying) an artist and newspaper seller. Ming helps her get to the New Terroritories and puts her up in his family hotel when Ming innocently informs Keung of her whereabouts.

The film is on the short side, at least on the video, running under eighty minutes. Sai Gwa Pau is cast as Ming’s newspaper stand boss and looks completely different here in glasses and moustache. Lee Heung Kam is enjoyable as the drunken floozy and companion of Keung. Keung Chung Ping is fast becoming a favorite villain of mine. Never so obvious or over the top as, say, Sek Kin or Lau Hark Suen, Keung is more of a realistic villain. One amusing touch is when Lee Pang Fei’s photo falls off the wall and hits Keung on the head while he is trying to kill Chan Ping.

The sets are flimsy and sound hollow as the actors walk across. One scene, that took me a minute to figure out, takes place on a train. Not until the background behing the window started moving did I realize it was a train and not a train station. That’s just quibbling though. There is a nicely done split screen special effect of a phone conversation without the usual obvious border between the two shots.

The China Art vcd has it’s usual lousy audio, not as bad as some others of theirs that I’ve encountered.

Reviewer Score: 7