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1975 Laugh in the Sleeve

(Pinyin: san xiao yin yuan)
三笑姻緣
Saam Siu Jan Jyun
a LEE TIT film
"Laugh in the Sleeve"
(source: Modern Records' DVD cover)

Released in 1975, this is the first of three movie musical versions of the Cantonese Opera genre series that Lung Kim Sang (龍劍笙) and Mui Suet See (梅雪詩) made together back in the 70's. The other two are 1976 Princess Chang Ping [帝女花] Dai Nui Fa and 1977 The Legend Of Purple Hairpin [紫釵記] Zi Caa Gei.

The story is about one most talented of the four scholars from Gong Naam 江南, Tong Bak Fu 唐伯虎 (Lung Kim Sang), who felt in love at first sight with a maid, Chow Heung 秋香 (Mui Suet See), whom Tong met on the way to the temple as Chow Heung accompanied the wife of Grand chancellor Wah 華太師 (Lan Chi Pak 靚次伯) to the temple for prayers.

In order to get closer to Chow Heung and to win her heart, Tong tried to enter the Wah family’s house by getting a job there as a servant to the Grand chancellor Wah’s two sons, Wah Man 華文 (Leung Sing Po 梁醒波) and Wah Mou 華武 (Tam Bing Man 譚炳文).

Interesting enough, Grand chancellor Wah’s second son’s wife, Ji Siu Naai 二少奶 (Lee Heung Kam), happens to be Tong’s cousin sister. With whom he made a bet that he would be able to woo and marry Chow Heung in two months. Else, he will lose 3,000 silver dollars to his cousin (or he’ll win them all, if otherwise!).

Would Tong, disguised as servant Wah On 華安, be successful in wining Chow Heung’s love? Or, will his cousin try to intervene the couple in keeping her from losing out the bet to Tong? And, did Tong in with his plan for love or the money?

Lung Kim Sang and Mui Suet See in character for Laugh in the Sleeve
(source: Modern Audio Ltd CD cover)

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Personally, this is a very fun and entertaining movie musical version of Tong Tik Sang’s Cantonese Opera classic Tong’s Affair. There are a lot of comical and adorable moments; especially, those exchanges between Tong/Wah On and Chow Heung. Lung Kim Sang and Mui Suet See are both very cute in portraying their witty characters of Tong and Chow Heung, respectively. Their chemistry is great and their charisma is magnetism!

It’s a rare treat in getting to watch Ms. Lung and Ms. Mui’s performance back in those early days while they were making names for themselves with the Chor Fung Ming [雛鳳鳴劇團] Young Phoenix Opera Troupe, a troupe that succeeded their mentors Yam Kim Fai (任劍輝) and Pak Suet Sin (白雪仙)’s originally founded Sin Fung Ming [仙鳳鳴劇團] Opera Troupe. That is not to mention special appearances from Lan Chi Pak, Leung Sing Po, Tam Bing Man, Lee Heung Kam, Chu Kim Dan and Lydia Shum Din Ha (沈殿霞) in the supporting roles.

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In regard to the media technical aspects, I bought this movie musical DVD of the Cantonese Opera genre released by Modern Audio Ltd. Though it is watchable, the transfer quality is not that great. There are many vertical and horizontal black lines, white and/or yellow spots appearing in a few parts, one more than the others. The audio is faded in and out at time and the picture is paused in a couple of scenes before being transitioned to the next as if something was edited out. The Chinese subtitles (for songs only) are displayed in the hard to read white colored font and that those should be read the traditional way, from right to left that is.

However, due the great quality of the movie musical itself, in term of casting and production wise at the time, it is enough to overlook the aforementioned issues with the DVD transferring quality and hope for a digitally remastered DVD version in the near future to do the Cantonese Opera movie musical “Laugh in the Sleeve” its justice.

Credits and/or Citations:
The above written review does incorporate researched movie data information from the Hong Kong Film Archive (HKFA) and some elements of the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong (LSHK) Cantonese Romanization Jyutping via the Cantonese to Pinyin online conversion tool by Dofufa.

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