The Love Eterne (1963)

Chu Ying-tai's at home playing ill and she's not eating. She wants to go to school and is doing what she can to persuade her father to let her go. Making little headway, she disguises herself as a doctor to advise the parents. The "doctor" suggests a psychological approach to heal the daughter - that is, send her to school disguised as a boy to fit into the system. It's impossible, suggests the naysaying father; no woman can conceal her identity he retorts. How wrong he is when his daughter whips off her disguise to parental surprise. Father concedes and, dressed as a young man, Ying-tai departs happily for school. With 18 miles to go, she meets fellow student Liang Shan-po. The two get on like a house on fire from the start, sing some rousing tunes (The Love Eterne is a 34-song musical) and vow to be best friends forever. Even their servants form a cute little bond too.

The Love Eterne two-disc 10" record set cover (1963, Odeon/EMI)

Three years of studies pass by and Chu's identity stays hidden from all except a schoolmistress. And all the while Chu falls deeper and deeper in love with Liang. When illness in the family calls Chu home, she and Liang take the long walk down the mountain from the school. Dropping hints of her identity in preparation for a glorious confession, Chu unwittingly becomes matchmaker for Liang by promising a "twin sister". The confession hasn't worked as planned and she departs in tears, urging her man to visit her hometown one day. Liang returns to the school, is told of his friend's true identity, is quickly engaged to her and dashes straight to her town, stopping only to sing along the way. But he's too late - she's suddenly betrothed to a mandarin's son and can't get out of it. Chu and Liang's marriage cannot be. He's mortified, she's desperately in love, and therein begins the tragedy.

The Love Eterne is two hours of solid entertainment. The delightful staging and playful songs never hint that it was actually a rush-job - the film had to beat a competing production of the same story to the cinemas. The leads rarely stop smiling for the first hour and a half and their songs are terrific. There's a song for all occasions; a tune for friendship, a song for medicinal remedies, and even one to alternately justify and debunk sexist texts. Traditional song, especially opera, comprises rich discourse and it makes for many strong theatrical sequences. The direction is hardly spectacular but the sets and costumes make up for that. Worth noting is that King Hu (director of Come Drink With Me, Dragon Inn, The Fate of Lee Khan) was also involved as associate director doing the "action scenes" while Li Hanxiang did the "romantic scenes"*. Also of interest is that the cinematographer is He Lanshan (Tadashi Nishimoto), who also photographed the spectacular Come Drink With Me three years later. If you're up for a good traditional musical, or would like to watch a classy little story, The Love Eterne shouldn't disappoint.

DVD information: IVL have released The Love Eterne in Hong Kong as a two-disc special edition in Celestial Pictures' Shaw Brothers line. The restored picture is presented in anamorphic widescreen with a crisp soundtrack to accompany. Extra features include a documentary on The Love Eterne hosted by Cheng Pei-pei, a documentary on Li Hanxiang and a documentary on yellow plum opera. Interviewees' names aren't translated into English on the documentaries, and nor is any on-screen text. The documentary about The Love Eterne also features a black and white logo on the lower left, which clashes with subtitles when viewed on 16:9 mode. Other features include a theatrical trailer, a Chinese-language song menu, various biographies, a music video, a photo gallery and a "production notes" page that simply copies info from the back of the box. IVL initially released two editions: an ordinary two-disc release and a presentation box with a bottle of perfume.

The Love Eterne was previously released on an unofficial Taiwanese DVD from Cosmos (titled "The Shan-Po and Chu Ying-Tai"). This all-code, NTSC disc offered a damaged print, cropped from its original scope aspect ratio and completed with letterboxing to conceal the original subtitles. Four sets of subtitles were available - Chinese simplified and traditional, Japanese and English. Menus and lead actors' biographies were also available in all the languages. A handy extra feature was the translated song menu to jump straight to each tune in the movie.

* Footnote: Background info for this review was sourced from Transcending the Times: King Hu & Eileen Chang, published 1998 by the HKIFF/Provisional Urban Council

Credits:

Directed by Li Hanxiang
Starring Betty Loh Ti and Ivy Ling Bo