Poon Bing-Kuen

Pak coek gung's family rents the third floor of a tenement building. Due to the water shortage, Pak's porridge stall is difficult to operate. At that time, Ah Seng, the son of Pak, owed money to Cheung, the fat man downstairs. Cheung saw that the porridge stall could not operate, so he took away the license of the porridge stall. In order to get the license back, Pak's daughter Miuying had to work as a dancer to pay off the debt. Then Pak's neighbors helped the porridge stall reopen and even reported Cheung for wasting water.

Chor Yuen started his directorial career with a bang. From its very first image, The Natural Son establishes Chor as a filmmaker of stylistic flourish, which would be sustained in various forms throughout his long tenure. Adapted from '30 cents' pulp fiction, it is a Kong Ngee melodrama made in the studio's mould, with Westernised characters and trendy middle-class lifestyles. Yet, Chor's first film is not exempt from the social urgency that characterises the Cantonese cinema of his father, Cheung Wood-yau. The film cloaks its entertainment in a moral deliberation on blood ties, its story about the raising of a bastard child a head-on challenge of archaic family values. An ostentatious start for a colourful and eventful career.

Adapted from a popular 'three dime novel' the story revolves around two down-and-out buddies, one streetwise and quick-witted the other naïve and kind-hearted. This oddball duo go through up and downs and eventually get their break in life.

Reporter Yu Mong-yuen is recovering from a leg injury in his fiancee Man-wah's apartment. Bored, he looks out the rear window and observes the life of the neighbouring building. Among the tenants are a sugar-daddy and his mistress, a middle-aged man wants to marry a young girl, but she is in love with his son. Finally, she hatches a plot and makes the man agree to her marrying his son ; a sly fortune-teller ; a lively gym, a rich widow quarrels with the trainer of a gymnasium because his dog has bitten her cat ; and an opera school, a woman signs, leaning on the balcony, and a man tries to strangle her. In fact they are rehearsing an opera…… One evening, Wah is on the night shift, and Yuen watches the opera troupe rehearse to the end. Under the influence of drugs, Yu mistakenly believes that a divorced man has murdered a taxi dancer. He alerts the police, but the whole thing is nothing more than a misunderstanding.

An avid fan of film star Patsy Kar Ling, Tse Sing falls head over heels for his new colleague Cheung Wai-ling who is a spitting image of the star, not knowing that she is the mistress of Manager Chow. When his wife comes to check the new secretary out, Chow lies that she is Tse's wife. When the truth dawns on the eager suitor, he heaps scorn on her. The distressed Cheung becomes suicidal and before taking the fatal pills, opens her heart to Mrs Chow. She is saved in time and, touched by her words, Tse professes his love for her and wins her heart.

Yung (Ng Cho-fan) is an upper-class kid who has fallen from grace. He forms a warped relationship with a rich widow (Pak Yin), only to meet again his wife (Siu Yin Fei) with whom he’s lost touch during the war. The fateful affair eventually opens up a Pandora’s box, turning jealousy, betrayal and selfishness into fatal outcomes.

Hong Kong thriller.

HK drama film.