A Night in Hong Kong (1961) [N/A]
Featuring:
Akira Takarada, Ming Yu, Yôko Tsukasa
Written by:
Toshirô Ide
Directed by:
Yasuki Chiba
Release Date:
July 1, 1961
Original Title:
香港の夜
Alternate Titles:
Honkon no yoru
Xiang gang zhi ye
Genres:
Romance
Production Companies:
Motion Picture & General Investment Co., Ltd.
TOHO
Production Countries:
Hong Kong | Japan
Ratings / Certifications:
N/A
Runtime: 119
Romantic melodrama set in contemporary Hong Kong, Japan and Laos. Hiroshi Tanaka (Takarada) is a Japanese journalist on assignment in Hong Kong who meets and falls in love with Wu Li Hung (Ming). He proposes to Wu Li but she rejects him because of her distaste for mixed marriages (her mother was Japanese but deserted her family and returned to Japan during WWII). Tanaka locates Wu Li’s mother and unsuccessfully tries to reunite them, but eventually Wu Li accepts his proposal. A joyous Tanaka flies off to Laos to finish an assignment but on the eve of his wedding he is killed there.
This film is better known as "A Night in Hong Kong". I saw this film shortly after its release in 1961 when I was in junior high. It is one of the most romantic films I have ever seen, starring two beautiful Asian actors, Japanese hunk Akira Takarada and Hong Kong ingénue Yu Min. The film does not seem to be available for current viewing however. The scenery and locales are filmed in gorgeous Technicolor. Although Hong Kong's economy then was not what it is today, this film provided its audience with easy listening pop music, designer clothes,perhaps an overly romanticized storyline, and a chance to escape. It is subtitled. It is suitable for all ages as by today's standards the relationship between the couple, a Japanese globe trotting reporter and a half-Chinese, half-Japanese woman he meets on assignment is treated in a very innocent manner. His kiss of her hand in one scene was truly one to swoon over. I highly recommend this film but it is exactly of its time and place, produced in the early 1960s when Hollywood stars of their generation included Connie Stevens and Troy Donohue.
