Si qian jin (1957)

User Rating:

6.5/10   

Director:

Qin Tao

Writer:

Qin Tao (writer)

Release Date:

13 November 1957 (Hong Kong)

Genre:

Drama

Cast

Kelly Lai Chen	...	Heyan
Peter Chen Ho	...	Sun Ruhao (as Hou Chen)
Jeanette Lin Tsui	...	Hedy Kong (as Lin Tsui)
Hong Mu	...	Hilda Kong
Feng Su	...	Hazel Kong
Ching Tien	...	Liu Guozhen
Chong Wang	...	Fu Lifu
Yuanlong Wang	...	Mr. Kong
Mulan Weng
Julie Yeh Feng	...	Helen Kong (as Feng Ye)
Kwan Yeung	...	David Cao

Also Known As:

Our Sister Hedy (Hong Kong: English title)

Runtime:

113 min

Country:

Hong Kong

Language:

Mandarin

Color:

Black and White

Company:

Motion Picture and General Investment Company

Movie Connections:

References Baby Doll (1956)

Sisters Forever

This movie is a sometimes lighthearted & sometimes poignant tale of four sisters, Hedy, Hilda, Hazel & Helen, all living together with their widowed father. They are all young women, and are at each other's throats, like sisters would be. However, they are also supportive of each other and you see them confirm their love for each other at various times throughout the film. They are all different: Hilda is the oldest, working as a Secretary and being a surrogate mom to her siblings. Helen is a seductress, glamorous and knows how to make men crazy. Hazel is seventeen and fairly early in the film elopes. The Hedy of the title is like a tomboy, also spontaneous and meddlesome, of course only in an endearing way. Hedy plays matchmaker for Hilda and their scenes together are wonderful, you can feel the love they have. At the same time, Hedy's best friend's cousin likes Hedy and she doesn't know what to make of it. If all these little plot turns makes you dizzy, they are supposed to. I had minor annoyances with the frequent fadeout of scenes, that just happened too often. If anything, instead of fading out the scenes, the director could have used the Jim Jarmusch technique on the excellent (but in no way related to this film) "Stranger Than Paradise", which employed separate screen shots, punctuated by a second or two of a completely dark screen. This film won best film honors at the 5th Asian Film Festival, and no wonder. Its not perfect, but its fun and the acting is top notch. It is a mostly feel good movie and definitely worth everyone's time.