Min Sun

Seventeen-year-old Xu Mengjiao hears troubling rumors at his private school about his mother’s mysterious identity. Seeking the truth, he returns home to question his family, but finds no clear answers. Guided only by hints and the words of a loyal servant, he is drawn to the foot of Leifeng Tower during a thunderstorm, where his cries awaken attention from the nearby temple. An abbot tells him that to uncover what he seeks, he must achieve fame. Determined, Mengjiao commits himself to study and, years later, returns to Leifeng Tower where a fateful encounter awaits.

A young woman falls in love with her university classmate but her father is against it. She disappears and soon there are rumours that her spirit haunts her family’s villa.

This is one of the rare gems in early Chinese musical films that still exists today. Nancy Chan plays a naïve young woman who can sing and dance. Under the arrangement of her stepfather, she becomes a star and indulges in the glitz and glamour of the entertainment world before getting married to a wealthy heir in Nanyang. Yet her husband is cruel and unfaithful, leading her to divorce and return to her parents in Shanghai. She is set for a comeback to the stage. Her young daughter suffers from a serious illness. A remake of the Bu Wanchang’s silent film The Light of Maternal Instinct (1933), this film takes cues from Hollywood musicals, resulting in an elegant and lively fusion of camera movement and musical numbers. The film also reflects the harsh reality of China in the 1930s and the pathos of popular literature by combining morals, entertainment and social commentary to show that changes in the idea of femininity is a symbol of progress.