When they were young .....

... they were cute, cuddly and adorable.

Parents wished they had a child like her. ... Fung Bo Bo, 馮宝宝. (Anyone knows who the man is.)


Or they wished they had a daughter as filial as she. ... Siew Fong Fong, 萧芳芳.


Or that their sons were as smart as he. ... Yuen Siu Fai, 阮兆辉.


The older Yuen Siu Fai, a well-known Cantonese opera artiste in HK.


The young Bruce Lee


Bruce Lee with Siew Fong Fong


Recently I had a sudden surge of interest in the old movies and movie stars. Many of the stars I have not even heard of before. Some of the old movies sound pretty interesting and the old stars look amiable, reminding me of friendly folks in my neighbourhood in the old days. Here are a few of the old stars.

蓝夜 ...


邓美美 ...


小燕飛 ...


林妹妹 ...


伊秋水 ...


李月清 ...


This was probably one of the earliest movies about Emperor Guang Xu and his concubine Zhen Fei. I have never heard Leong Mo Siong sing this song.

more nostalgic stuff - 粵語片演員

While looking for pictures for the previous post, I found some other old stuff which might be of interest to you.

1. Ng Chor Fan and Bak Yin - My father was a great fan of these two old movie stars.

早年的電影，看過的，都有印象。
故事簡單，情節感人。
吳楚帆一句：食碗面，反碗底！
讓你銘記於心。


2. Here is a movie starring Xie Xian and Jiang Xue. It was also shown at the then Hollywood Cinema.


3. I think this is the first Condor Heroes in Cantonese and the first Yang Guo was Xie Xian and Xiao Long Nu was Nan Hong.

1960年李化導演粵語片，《神雕俠侶》一共四集，謝賢、南紅成為第一代楊過與小龍女。


4. This is probably the first Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre in Cantonese starring Cheung Ying and Bak Yin. These two stars rarely did wuxia movies. Heaven sword and Dragon Sabre is the third of The Condor Heroes Trilogy.

白燕擅演「苦情戲」，「俠女」形象比較少見。圖為白燕飾演的殷素素及張瑛在《倚天屠龍記》的劇照。


5. A scene from another wuxia movie, The Buddha's Palm, 如來神掌. These were the special effects in those days. These effects were to show the internal strength of the martial experts.


6. This is Cho Tat Wah. Here he was in one of his well-known roles - a detective.

曹達華1949年憑《逼虎跳墻》獲封「銀壇鐵漢」，同年的《七劍十三俠》（1至6集）更創下當年最賣座紀錄。1964年，《如來神掌》系列風靡影圈，同時，曹達華在《黃飛鴻傳》中扮演黃飛鴻大弟子梁寬，開始《黃飛鴻》系列七十多集的演出。「神探」系列，亦為曹達華「煞食」戲種，他因此又有「曹探長」外號。


7. This is Leong Sing Por in his younger days. He was not fat then.

梁醒波年輕時照片。梁醒波（1908─1981年），原名梁侍海，廣東南海人，出生於新加坡，其對粵劇的喜好，乃受父親名武生聲架悅及姐姐名花旦花旗金之影響。


8. Leong Sing Por at his last appearance on TV in 1980.

波叔最後一次亮相螢光幕是1980年12月《歡樂滿東華》慈善籌款晚會，最後一次演出粵劇是1980年12月12日參加雛鳳鳴劇團在粉嶺演出神功戲，當晚演出《跨鳳乘龍》後，便不支病倒，入住醫院。其後因患肺炎，一病不起。


9. This is Mak Beng Weng, movie actor and Cantonese opera artiste. He was famous for his deep rough voice and his fans love his gruff singing.

以「豆沙喉」唱腔別具一格的麥炳榮。


10. The 4 famous villains in Cantonese movies, 粵語片四大奸人

Sek Kin, 石堅


Mak Kei, 麥基


Keong Chung Peng, 姜中平

粵語片四大奸人之一的姜中平因癌症逝世，終年77歲。姜中平1947 年從影，以演花花公子、鹹濕老闆著名。


Lau Hak Suen, 劉克宣


These two actors also often did the bad-guy role.

Long Kong, 龍剛


Fung Feng, 馮峰

nostagic stuff - old movie stars

I was reading the post on Hollywood Cinema at the blog Times of My Life. The cinema does not exist anymore. The premises are now occupied by Sheng Siong Supermarket.

I do not know if Siew Fong Fong or Fung Bo Bo performed at Hollywood Cinema before. However, I remember a movie star who made an appearance there. She was Jiang Xue, 江雪. In those days it was quite common for movie stars to make a personal appearance on stage at the cinema in conjunction with the screening of their movies.

This is Jiang Xue, 江雪.


Jiang Xue was a lead actress with the Guang Yi Movie Company, 光藝電影公司. The other more famous lead actresses were Nan Hong and Jia Ling. Jiang Xue was lesser-known and she looked like the goody type. I don't think she did any TV shows or dramas. I think after a short period she just vanished from the movie scene and there is little information about her. Nonetheless, of the three actresses she was my favourite.

This is Nan Hong, 南紅.


This is Jia Ling, 嘉玲.


And the lead actor of Guang Yi was Xie Xian, 謝賢. Unlike Jiang Xue there are plenty of news and gossips about him.


謝賢, 江雪


光藝是香港粵語片最後一個黃金時期的主要力量。


光藝電影公司係60年代是全盛時期，該公司出產電影質數很高，這八名影星是光藝基本演員，計有周聰, 嘉玲, 謝賢, 江雪, 余美華, 王偉, 南紅, 龍剛。


One of the last productions of the company - 《英雄本色》. Later I think there were two remakes of this movie.



Quiz for you

How many of the old stars do you recognize in these two photos? In the first photo I only know Cheung Would Yau and Bak Yin; and in the second, I only know Cheung Would Yau and Cheung Ying. I doubt anyone of you knows all of them.





Answers

Photo 1:

《十二金釵戲玉郎》（1951年）劇照。前排左起：林家儀、周坤玲、紅線女、張活遊、白燕、小燕飛、李雁；後排左起：伊秋水、陳翠屏、鄧美美、藍夜、秦小梨、林妹妹、梅珍、劉桂康。

Photo 2:

《為情傾倒》（1952）左起﹕任劍輝、周坤玲、張活游、張瑛、白雪仙、甘露、何少雄。

curtain stuck

One problem that could happen during an opera show is the performer's microphone or the sound system malfunctioning.

Last week I was at a show and there was a rather unusual problem - the curtain on stage got stuck.

The curtain was the type that can be raised or lowered by pressing a switch.

It was before the last item. The curtain was being lowered. Most of it was about one-quarter way down when it stopped moving. However, one part continued to move until it was about three-quarter way down before it stopped.

Attempts to fix the problem were unsuccessful.

Finally, the organizers moved the table and chairs and other props to one side of the stage where the curtain was one-quarter way down and you could still see the faces of the performers. And the show continued.

I think the organizers were aware that the curtain was faulty because they did not use the curtain in the other items.

Fortunately, the last item involved only two artistes and they didn't have to move all over the stage or to fight with each other.

A memorable concert

I have watched Cantonese opera shows in Hong Kong, Macau and Guangzhou. I couldn't remember most of them. Here is one concert that I remember quite well. It was "Chan Ling Yeok's Cantonese Operatic Songs Concert".

I have also seen Chan Ling Yeok perform at The Kreta Ayer People's Theatre in Singapore and the Nan Fang Theatre in Guangzhou.

The show was in December 1999 at The City Hall Auditorium in Hong Kong.


This was the programme ...


These were the performers. They all sang very well.

miscellaneous

This apple was put in the refrigerator for one day. When I took it out to eat, it has cracked. Maybe the outer layer cooled faster than the core and the contraction caused it to crack.



The 24-hour FAIRPRICE supermarket in my neighbourhood is not the super big one or the mini small one. I think it is in the lower of the medium range. There are 5 female cashiers from China, 4 female Indian cashiers and the other cashiers are Chinese. But there are no Malay cashiers. Not unusual, but quite odd, right?


Occasionally you hear people say "The reason is because .....". Do you still remember your lessons on clauses when you were in school? It should be "The reason is that .....".

Wuchuan and Nanning

In 2008 and 2010, the Kreta Ayer People's Theatre Foundation brought in two China troupes from outside its normal sources. They were the Wuchuan Cantonese Opera Troupe and the Nanning Cantonese Opera Troupe. They were new to opera fans here.

The Wuchuan troupe are particularly noted for their traditional opera skills which are very difficult to master. Both troupes also performed operas which were not performed by other troupes which had come here. It was a refreshing change to fans who have been watching the same China troupes and artistes for some 20 years.

The Wuchuan Troupe in 2008 ...


This was the leading sheng ...


Here is one of their shows. I already have a post about this show.


The Nanning Cantonese Opera Troupe in 2010 ...


The leading sheng ...


One of their shows ...