White Powder and Neon Lights (1947) [N/A]

Release Date:
January 1, 1947

Original Title:
金粉霓裳

Alternate Titles:
Gam Fan Ngai Seung
Jin Fen Ni Shang
Jinfen Nishang
The Gold Braided Dress

Genres:
Drama

Production Companies:
Grandview (US Branch)

Production Countries:
Hong Kong

Ratings / Certifications:
 N/A

Runtime: 94

This is the first 16mm Cantonese film in full colour, shot on 1940s state-of-the-art Technicolor film stock. Opera star Man-ha (Leung Bik-yuk) enjoys tremendous popularity during her performances in San Francisco, but drowns herself in the vices and temptations of the big city. Increasingly, she fails to show up for performances, almost causing the theatre to go bankrupt. When she sees her lover for the scoundrel that he is, she also sees the errors of her own ways and saves the theatre, restoring it to glory. Joseph Sunn Jue established the Grandview Film Company in Hong Kong during the 1930s and continued making films in the USA during wartime by collaborating with Chinese opera performers in exile there. Wong Hok-sing, an opera actor himself, directed, wrote and starred in this film. He staged a spectacular play-within-a-play at the end, not only to promote the art of Cantonese opera but also to boost solidarity among overseas Chinese through difficult times.

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