First part of the omnibus Illicit Desire and actually quite out of style among the other erotic vignettes, Getting the Orchid Pavilion Scroll by Deception recounts how Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty dispatches censor Xiao Yi, in disguise as a wandering scholar, to retrieve the original copy of a "Lantingji Xu" (Preface to the Poems Collected from the Orchid Pavilion) written by legendary calligrapher Wang Xizhi, from the monk Biancai who claimed that it had been lost. Arguably the most serious, and unquestionably the most carefully researched and designed, piece of work by Li Han-hsiang in his last days at Shaw Brothers, the film simply looks gorgeous. Both the Yongxin Temple and its libraries are impeccably reproduced in all of its details, and there’s a serenity in Li’s direction that cannot be found in his other films of the same period. A very small piece of art work, but also almost flawless.

©Licensed by Celestial Pictures Limited. All rights reserved.

30/9

(Sun)

9:15pm

Cinema, Hong Kong Film Archive

17/11

(Sat)

2:00pm

Cinema, Hong Kong Film Archive