Chinese-born author best known for her 1952 book A Many-Splendoured Thing
Colonial Hong Kong, a doomed love affair and the echoes of revolution in China were the explosive mixture that made the reputation of the author Han Suyin, who has died aged 95. The film of her 1952 book A Many-Splendoured Thing may have been just a classic weepie, but the original novel shocked Hong Kong with its tale of her love affair with a married man and its sympathy for the appeal of communism to China's downtrodden millions.
She would shock people many times again as she acted out the philosophy expounded in the film by Jennifer Jones, playing a character based on the author: "To go on living, one must be occasionally unwise." Her defence of Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution, though later recanted, came to overshadow her huge literary talents.
The ambiguities of her identity, as the daughter of a Chinese engineer and his Belgian wife,...
Colonial Hong Kong, a doomed love affair and the echoes of revolution in China were the explosive mixture that made the reputation of the author Han Suyin, who has died aged 95. The film of her 1952 book A Many-Splendoured Thing may have been just a classic weepie, but the original novel shocked Hong Kong with its tale of her love affair with a married man and its sympathy for the appeal of communism to China's downtrodden millions.
She would shock people many times again as she acted out the philosophy expounded in the film by Jennifer Jones, playing a character based on the author: "To go on living, one must be occasionally unwise." Her defence of Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution, though later recanted, came to overshadow her huge literary talents.
The ambiguities of her identity, as the daughter of a Chinese engineer and his Belgian wife,...
- 11/6/2012
- by John Gittings
- The Guardian - Film News
Tai Chi 0 and The Last Supper: Both films belong to "official" mainstream commercial production. Yet each in its way is a fascinating occasion to reflect upon Chinese neo-studio system.
Tai Chi 0 (Stephen Fung)
Yang Luchan (wushu champ Yuan Xiaochao), a young martial arts genius, desperately wants to learn the famous secret Tai Chi art of the Chen family. With the discrete help of the Grand Master (Tony Leung Kar-fai), and through repeated beatings from the villagers and the Master's daughter (Angelababy), he comes to master some of the Chen art and ends up helping destroying an evil British steam machine that could wipe out the village for the construction of a profitable railway line.
Tai Chi 0 (the first episode of a blockbuster-to-be trilogy) may well entertain foreign and local audiences: manga anime oriented, displaying a cast of top-models, pop icons and kung fu stars new and old,...
Tai Chi 0 (Stephen Fung)
Yang Luchan (wushu champ Yuan Xiaochao), a young martial arts genius, desperately wants to learn the famous secret Tai Chi art of the Chen family. With the discrete help of the Grand Master (Tony Leung Kar-fai), and through repeated beatings from the villagers and the Master's daughter (Angelababy), he comes to master some of the Chen art and ends up helping destroying an evil British steam machine that could wipe out the village for the construction of a profitable railway line.
Tai Chi 0 (the first episode of a blockbuster-to-be trilogy) may well entertain foreign and local audiences: manga anime oriented, displaying a cast of top-models, pop icons and kung fu stars new and old,...
- 9/11/2012
- MUBI
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