A backstage musical offering a compelling portrait of love and career, fame and power. Based on the Hollywood film Love Me or Leave Me (1955), the film stars Cantonese opera star Fong Yim-fun and the great actor Ng Cho-fan, the latter doubling as producer. Fong plays an opera aficionado who aspires to stardom and, in a fashion atypical of Cantonese cinema, strikes a Faustian bargain to realize her dream. She exploits a mob boss’s fascination with her, playing him like a sap, only to find herself unable to escape his domineering and obsessive control… The Sorrowful Lute not only features a grippingly expansive performance by Ng and a touchingly calibrated turn by Fong but also an interesting look into the rooftop entertainment scene of Guangdong.

7/7

(Sat)

7:00pm *

Cinema, Hong Kong Film Archive

15/7

(Sun)

1:10pm #

Broadway Cinematheque

* Post-screening talk with David Chan
Due to schedule changes, Ms. Angela Law is unable to attend the post-screening talk at the Hong Kong Film Archive on 7 July 2012. Mr. David Chan will take her place. Sorry for any inconvenience caused.
# Post-screening talk with Yuen Siu-fai