Music and film a perfect combination

Top, Dream of the Red Chamber, above, Farewell My Concubine. PHOTO COURTESY OF SPOT 320 TAIPEI FILM HOUSE AND MAJESTIC CINEMA

Take look at the musical films selected for the Music in Taiwan and Mandarin Films: A Companionship Film Festival and you will be surprised how much Taiwanese people love singing.

Starting the festival focuses on five film song writers: Zhi Lan-pin (周藍萍), Iao Min (姚敏), Ueng Cing-xi (翁清溪), Shi Jie-ieng (史擷詠), and Zhao Ji-pin (趙季平). While Zhi Lan-pin and Iao Min brought traditional Chinese folk music, such as Hung-Mei opera (黃梅調) into movies; Ueng Cing-xi, Shi Jie-ieng and Zhao Ji-pin belong to the modern generation of film composers whose musical training ranges from electronic to jazz to contemporary music.

The Kingdom and the Beauty, The Dream of the Red Chamber, and The Love Eterne are three classical Hung-Mei opera films. This kind of folk musical comes from the central Chinese provinces. After they were made into movies, some of them became huge hits during the 1960's.

The Chinese version of the Romeo and Juliet love story is told through sentimental folk songs and dance in The Love Eterne, which after its huge initial success has become a cult film in the past 40 years. The superstar Lin Ching-hsia (林青霞) played a male character in The Dream of the Red Chamber, an adaptation from Chinese classical literature. These films are shining testaments to the golden age of Hong-Kong costume movies.

Traditional and theater were major sources for film making during the golden age of the Taiwanese film industry. Apart from Hung-Mei opera, Peking opera (京戲) and Kunqu (崑曲) are another two main aspirations for Chinese musical films. Farewell My Concubine is directed by Chen Kaige and features Gong Li (鞏俐) and Leslie Cheung (張國榮). In this movie, modern Chinese history intertwines with the love-hate relationship between two Peking opera stars.

Fleeing by Night, Peony Pavilion and Breaking the Willow are films inspired by Kunqu -- the oldest Chinese traditional opera.

Yon Fan (楊帆), the Hong Kong director of Peony Pavilion and Breaking the Willow, is himself an amateur Kunqu artist. He tries to transfer the eternal beauty of this traditional art onto the big screen.

Unfortunately due to bad preservation, many prints of Chinese musical films have been lost, and among those that remain few are shown with English subtitles. So if you don't want to sit through and listen to indecipherable traditional Chinese songs without English subtitles, do verify the screening information in the festival program before you attend.

Music Taiwan and Mandarin Films at Spot -- Taipei Film House and Majestic Cinema.

Until Aug. 26, tel: (02) 25117786