Laugh, Clown, Laugh

The Imperial Maid Fei Zhen'e

Princess Iron Fan

The Peerless Beauty

This is a story of how Ru Ji, a farm girl of Chao Kuo, who sacrificed her own life to save her country and people in the year 257 B.C.

Rendezvous

Youngsters of the Time

The Three Loves

Li's direction and Jin Yong's script always go hand-in-hand with each other. This time, their collaboration sparks again as the film seamlessly brings three short stories together through three different segments of flashbacks. Yin Zhaozong (Bao Fong) is an amour fou falling in love with a girl much younger than him. Instead, Yu Baicheng (Fu Che) is a playboy trapped by his three girlfriends. The bartender (Chiao Chuang), however, tells them how he and his wife are blessed by true love. The film not only displays Li's sensitivity to narrative structure but also his ability to cast the most suited actors for their respective roles, as such Mao Mei had a chance to demonstrate her dance talent for her debut in this movie.

Our Husband

Li's first directorial work in Hong Kong is adapted, by himself, from the Hollywood movie The Great Lie (1941) starring Bette Davis. When a husband disappears in an accident, the wife is dismayed by a social butterfly pregnant with her husband's child. To preserve the husband's blood line, the wife takes care of the expectant mother and raises the child. Featuring the two ravishing beauties Li Lihua and Sun Jinglu, Our Husband foregoes juicy feuds between the leads and delivers an allegorical message: parents should provide an ideal environment for the next generation. Addressing the rocky times in China, it is equally overt in its remonstration as Yung Hwa's earlier works, The Soul of China and Sorrows of the Forbidden City.

Awful Truth

As China falls into hyperinflation following the end of the war, people fought tooth and nail to get their hands on the only reliable currencies in the world: gold and American dollars. This is a story that shows how seven bars and two thousand US dollars bring together an interesting mix of characters: an opportunistic manager, a materialistic courtesan, a con artist posing as a commissioner of the Treasury, a white-collar worker who will do anything for a promotion, a man who specialises in conning women, a father who marries off his daughter for money and a sorcerer who fakes his magic. In this dog-eat-dog world, the only truth is that everyone is lying for his own gain. Playing the courtesan who longs to be part of high society, Li Lihua steals the film with a feisty performance opposite the amusing Yan Jun, whose con artist character has a tendency to flirt with lyrics from Peking operas.

Home

The Classic for Girls

A hostess in Shanghai invites her secondary schoolmates to a reunion. They each reminisce about their lives, with some having difficulties in marriage or career. Some led destructive lives, while others contributed to the country.

Three Charming Smiles

Tang Bohu is smitten by the stunning beauty of Qiuxiang, the maid of Grand Tutor Hua, during his visit to a monastery in Suzhou. Stalking the maid, Tang's affections are finally reciprocated with three charming smiles. To approach the fair maid, Tang seeks work in the Grand Tutor residence as a study companion, and his talents win Hua's attention. As a frustrated suitor, he turns to his resourceful friend Zhu Zhishan for help.

Mother and Son

After falling in love with Han Liren and giving birth to an "illegitimate child", Han Liren abandoned her and married a rich girl and cheated her out of the child. Huang Su then left the country, changed her name to Lin Luping, and became an actress. Sixteen years later, Huang Su was so popular that she was invited to perform in Shanghai. The young actor she worked with, Han Chen, was withdrawn and hated everyone, and everyone discriminated against him because he was an abandoned "illegitimate child". On stage, Han Chen played Lin Luping's son and was very successful. Later Lin Luping finds out that he turns out to be her biological son who was cheated away by Han Liren years ago. At this point, the theater owner Han Liren appears and wishes to get back together with Lin Luping, but is rejected by Lin Luping's mother and son.

Sheng li si bie

A Dazzling Trap

HK horror film.

The Young Mistress' Fan

Lady Windermere's Fan, Oscar Wilde's play on moral values, is adapted for a setting in Shanghai. Young wife Meilin mistakenly believes her husband is having an affair with a social butterfly and decides to leave for a suitor. Her reputation, about to be ruined because of a misplaced fan, is saved by the social butterfly who turns out to be …Unlike typical Chinese scripts on parental love, the understated familial love in the original play is aligned with Li's preference for the undramatic. Motherly love is portrayed indirectly while emotions run strong yet subdued in the film. Poking fun at social culture of the times, this is Li's earliest extant feature film in a modern setting and a showcase of his modernistic and crisp directorial approach.

Hua Mulan Joins the Army

A silent film based on the legend of Hua Mulan, released by Tianyi Film Company and directed by Li Pingqian. This silent film holds the distinction of being the first ever full-length feature film about Hua Mulan. Mulan is betrothed to a young man when war arrives and their wedding ceremony has to be put on hold. As her fiancé enlists in the army, so too does the filial Mulan, disguised as a man in place of her ailing father. These new plot twists lead to comedic moments when Mulan encounters her fiancé during training and he does not recognize her.

Killer Klowns from Outer Space

Aliens disguised as clowns crash land on Earth in a rural town to capture unsuspecting victims in cotton candy cocoons for later consumption.

Shakes the Clown

Shakes plods about his duties as party clown, and uses all of his free time getting seriously drunk. Binky, another clown, wins the spot on a local kiddie show, which depresses Shakes even more, and his boss threatens him with unemployment if he can't get his act under control.

Limelight

A fading music hall comedian tries to help a despondent ballet dancer learn to walk and to again feel confident about life.

Air Bud

A lonely boy befriends a stray dog who has a natural talent for basketball and together they experience the highs and lows of life as their friendship remains solid through a series of escapades.

Delicatessen

In a post-apocalyptic world, the residents of an apartment above the butcher shop receive an occasional delicacy of meat, something that is in low supply. A young man new in town falls in love with the butcher's daughter, which causes conflicts in her family, who need the young man for other business-related purposes.

The Wing or the Thigh?

Charles Duchemin, a well-known gourmet and publisher of a famous restaurant guide, is waging a war against fast food entrepreneur Tri- catel to save the French art of cooking. After having agreed to appear on a talk show to show his skills in naming food and wine by taste, he is confronted with two disasters: his son wants to become a clown rather than a restaurant tester and he, the famous Charles Duchemin, has lost his taste!

Wrinkles the Clown

In Florida, parents can hire Wrinkles the Clown to scare their misbehaving children.