The Story of Sue San (1964)

After figuring out that the opera they are performing in Wu Ma's STAGE DOOR JOHNNY is The Story Of Su San, I decided it might finally be time to check out King Hu's directorial debut, which - contrary to popular belief - was not Come Drink With Me.

The Story Of Su San is one of the Chinese classics, a Ming Dynasty opera that was probably based on a story that had been told for generations. It concerns a wealthy scion with more money than sense - by quite some margin - who falls for a popular courtesan named Su San and fritters away his fortune, eventually being disowned and becoming destitute. "A fool and his money are easily parted", but Su San herself is presented as a model of virtue despite her own hardship.

I do like the fact that in this period of Chinese history it was apparently completely acceptable to break the ice at a dinner party with questions like "So, any favourite prostitutes?" but the film does not shy away from the dark side of that equation, and the corruption and exploitation it enables. Su San's story is a profound tragedy - though she at least receives a just ending here, denied her in Stage Door Johnny (my main reason for watching this was to confirm a suspicion that was the case!).

King Hu is rightfully famous for his ground-breaking martial arts films, but it was his gift for character and meticulous attention to detail that made them so special as much as the visionary action. Apparently his meticulousness was not appreciated by his employers at the time, or at least the price tag associated with it, and this film was a fraught production that King Hu feels was overly compromised by the producers. You wouldn't know it to watch it... but there is probably less of the director's distinctive voice than in his later works.

Never the less it is a well crafted work, if a little heavy-handed - perhaps not unexpected for something that hews fairly close to its operatic origins. Leading man Chao Lei is not particularly charismatic but Betty Loh Tih easily demonstrates why she was chosen as the female lead in so many films in this era..