Cinema China Day 4 - Shaw Brothers Double Bill

Kim Ho Ip, who composed the new soundtrack to The Goddess, set up in the filmhouse bar to play Beijing Opera pieces and 1930s Shanghai jazz numbers, creating the perfect atmosphere to lead up to the Love Eterne. The first of a Shaw Brothers double bill, The Love Eterne tells the story of the Butterfly Lovers, a story as archetypal in China as Romeo and Juliet over here. It follows a woman in Confucian China named Yin-tai who disguises herself as a man to attend school where she falls in love with Shan-bo, who remains oblivious to her true identity. When Shan-bo finally learns the truth and set off to propose it is too late, for Yin-tai has been betrothed by her father to a influential family. The film is almost unbearably beautiful, revelling in melodramatic and aesthetic excess. There are brilliant layers of dramatic irony, not least because the director chooses to cast women in the two main roles, placing it in the same gender-bending territory as many other Hong Kong films such as Swordsman and He's a Woman, She's a Man.

The second film in the double bill was The One Armed Swordsman (Chang Cheh, 1967), which revolutionised Hong Kong cinema by shifting it from the melodrama into the more masculine territory of the martial arts film, paving the way for Bruce Lee. Its dated somewhat now, with much of the dialogue seeming unintentionally funny and the antagonists running around with their special weapon, a sword lock that looks more like a giant can opener. The final part of the film is a carnival of violence, almost as though the circus freakshow and clowns had risen up against their whip cracking ringmaster.

Today i also met Mehelli Modi, the managing director of Second Run DVD who is at the festival checking out potential films for release. Although the label specialises in East European cinema, a recent release of Apichatpong Weeresthakul's Blissfully Yours demonstrates a potentially fruitful branching out into Asian cinema. Mehelli is a kind hearted, shrewdly intelligent and elegant man with impeccable taste. He gave me his email address and told me to stay in touch. Perhaps i could get some work in his company.