Out of the eight screenplays written by Eileen Chang and made into films by MP & GI, three were directed by Yueh. The only extant work is The Battle of Love, the first Hong Kong film scripted by Eileen Chang. In this urban romantic comedy, Linda Lin Dai plays a headstrong heiress who loves to be a goddess worshipped by men. Snubbed by the man she loves (Chang Yang), she takes it out on the white-collar worker Peter Chen Ho and the fat archaeologist Liu Enjia. In the end, not even Chang Yang can be immune to her anymore. Nellie Chin Yu, a script editor at MP & GI, plays the elder sister, a character that frequently faces rivalry from her younger sister in Chang’s script. In the film, however, the younger sister does not try to make mischief much, while some other plot devices were also   changed. A veteran director, Yueh would not shoot strictly according to the script, but successfully conjures up a paradise for the idle rich, where people are preoccupied with love rather than work, and highlights Linda Lin Dai’s playfulness and the fickleness of a woman’s heart. While it seems to depart from his realistic tradition, the film is witty and incisive.

9/9*

(Tue)

2:00pm

Cinema, Hong Kong Film Archive

21/9

(Sun)

2:30pm

Cinema, Hong Kong Film Archive

* Post-screening talk with Ka Ming