June Bride: The stars of Cathay are out in full force in this upbeat musical drama which shows in a muted way some of the ways that Western culture mixed with Chinese to create something quite different.

The very lovely and talented Grace Cheng plays Wang Tanlin who has traveled with her father for many years. She has in her travels picked up a suitor and dance partner much to her refusal. Her only love is Tung Chifang, a man she hasn't seen in over two years. However traditional she seems, she resents that her father seems to be using the marriage as nothing but a business proposal and when a third suitor, a salior played by the always wonderful Roy Chaio, comes into play Tanlin is so confused she leaves the groom in the lurch. Of course being a Cathay film you are guaranteed a happy ending.

If there was ever a film studio so devoted to happy and upbeat "slice of life" films it was the glorious and wonderful Cathay studios otherwise referred to as M.P. & G.I. As I have documented in the past the sheer amiability of everyone in the film from Grace Cheng to Roy Chaio to the portly Liu Enjia, Cathay always seemed to deliver a film worth watching. They seemed to take a topic so simple as buying a car, being a stewardess or just about dancing the Mambo, Cathay could make a 100 minute film about it and make it interesting.

Sad that those days of simple movies are gone but thanks to DVD a whole new generation can see them. I can pretty much guarantee that no one at M.P. & G.I. ever thought their films would be watched 50 years later by a white guy on the East Coast of the US but in this age of DVD, it can be done!



I definitely recommend this one just as I recommend every Cathay film.

Labels: Cathay, Comedy, Hong Kong, Musical, Romance