Huangmei Opera

In the 1950s, Heavenly Match, a Huangmei Opera film produced on the Mainland, bacame a smash hit in Hong Kong. This led Shaws to encourage Li Han-hsiang to follow suit and incorporate Huangmei Opera elements in his works. Diau Charn (1956)an early example of this effort, was well received by the local audience. Ensuing works of the genre, The Kingdom and the Beauty (1959) and The Love Eterne (1963), moreover, used the talent of many musicians who had recently arrived from the Mainland and the quality of the composition, musical arrangement and song-dubbing was much higher as a result. These efforts to modernize Huangmei Opera and broaden the appeal to the audiences of Greater China paid off. When The Love Eterne (1963)was shown in Taiwan, it not only became a huge box-office success, but also won six awards in the 2nd Golden Horse Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Music, Best Editing, Best Actress in a Leading Role, and Best Acting Special Award. It represented a peak in Shaw’s Huangmei Opera film production. Given the popularity of the genre, other directors such as Yueh Feng, Yen Chuan and Ho Meng-hua made Huangmei Opera films as well. In the two decades between the production of Diau Charn in 1956 and The Dream of the Red Chamber in 1977 – both directed by Li Han-hsiang – the Huangmei Opera may be considered iconic in Shaw’s filmmaking.