White Powder and Neon Lights

White Powder and Neon Lights

1947 · 94 min · ★ 9.0 · Drama

This is the first 16mm Cantonese film in full colour, shot on 1940s state-of-the-art Technicolor film stock. Opera star Man-ha (Leung Bik-yuk) enjoys tremendous popularity during her performances in San Francisco, but drowns herself in the vices and temptations of the big city. Increasingly, she fails to show up for performances, almost causing the theatre to go bankrupt. When she sees her lover for the scoundrel that he is, she also sees the errors of her own ways and saves the theatre, restoring it to glory. Joseph Sunn Jue established the Grandview Film Company in Hong Kong during the 1930s and continued making films in the USA during wartime by collaborating with Chinese opera performers in exile there. Wong Hok-sing, an opera actor himself, directed, wrote and starred in this film. He staged a spectacular play-within-a-play at the end, not only to promote the art of Cantonese opera but also to boost solidarity among overseas Chinese through difficult times.

Directed by Hok Sing Wong · Written by Hok Sing Wong

Your Rating

Cast

Make it a double feature

3h 1m together

White Powder and Neon Lights

The Lady from Shanghai

A close match in mood and era.

More from Hok Sing WongSee all →

Backyard Adventures

Backyard Adventures · 1955

Backyard Adventures

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.

Golden Gate Girl

Golden Gate Girl · 1941

Golden Gate Girl

The story follows a Chinese-American girl who falls for a Cantonese opera star against her father's wishes and becomes pregnant.

天女散花

天女散花 · 1958

MovieDramaFantasy

孫悟空三戲百花仙

孫悟空三戲百花仙 · 1965

孫悟空三戲百花仙

MovieDramaFantasy

999神秘雙屍案

999神秘雙屍案 · 1965

999神秘雙屍案

箫声震武林（下集）

箫声震武林（下集） · 1965

箫声震武林（下集）

箫声震武林（上集）

箫声震武林（上集） · 1965

箫声震武林（上集）

Haunted Bridge

Haunted Bridge · 1957

HK horror film.

The All-powerful Flute: Part 1

The All-powerful Flute: Part 1 · 1965

The All-powerful Flute: Part 1

MovieAdventureDrama

A powerful flute becomes the focus of all the fighters in the martial world, much blood is shed as they battle and scheme to get their hands on it.

Fat-Choy Precious Diamonds

Fat-Choy Precious Diamonds · 1966

Fat-Choy Precious Diamonds

Treasure of Diamonds

Pretended Ghost

Pretended Ghost · 1961

Pretended Ghost

Hong Kong horror movie from 1961.

How Liang Hongyu's War Drum Caused the Jin Army to Retreat

How Liang Hongyu's War Drum Caused the Jin Army to Retreat · 1956

How Liang Hongyu's War Drum Caused the Jin Army to Retreat

The Song Dynasty is in danger after being invaded by Jin soldiers. The geisha Liang Hongyu encourages her lover Han Shizhong to join the army and fight against Jin Zhong's superior, Wei Liangchen.

The Matchmaker

The Matchmaker · 1959

Mr Wong falls head over heels for Lan, a beautiful waitress. He bugs her constantly to ask for her hand, and even goes as far as lying about his wife being dead and secretly planing to marry his wife off to a friend. Lan decides to play a prank on him to teach him a lesson.

More Like This

Farewell My Concubine

Farewell My Concubine · 1993

Farewell My Concubine

In an epic tale of theater, gender, love and class, two Beijing opera actors navigate political turmoil as their friendship evolves over decades.

House of Sand and Fog

House of Sand and Fog · 2003

House of Sand and Fog

Behrani, an Iranian immigrant buys a California bungalow, thinking he can fix it up, sell it again, and make enough money to send his son to college. However, the house is the legal property of former drug addict Kathy. After losing the house in an unfair legal dispute with the county, she is left with nowhere to go. Wanting her house back, she hires a lawyer and befriends a police officer. Neither Kathy nor Behrani have broken the law, so they find themselves involved in a difficult moral dilemma.

The Zodiac

The Zodiac · 2005

MovieCrimeDrama

An elusive serial killer known as the Zodiac terrorizes the San Francisco Bay in the late 1960s, while detectives aim to stop him before he claims more victims. Based on a true story.

Milk

MovieHistoryDrama

The true story of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man ever elected to public office. In San Francisco in the late 1970s, Harvey Milk becomes an activist for gay rights and inspires others to join him in his fight for equal rights that should be available to all Americans.

Vanishing Point

Vanishing Point · 1971

Vanishing Point

MovieActionCrime

Kowalski works for a car delivery service, and takes delivery of a 1970 Dodge Challenger to drive from Colorado to San Francisco. Shortly after pickup, he takes a bet to get the car there in less than 15 hours.

Thieves' Highway

Thieves' Highway · 1949

Thieves' Highway

MovieDramaCrime

Nick Garcos comes back from his tour of duty in World War II planning to settle down with his girlfriend, Polly Faber. He learns, however, that his father was recently beaten and burglarized by mob-connected trucker Mike Figlia, and Nick resolves to get even. He partners with prostitute Rica, and together they go after Mike, all the while getting pulled further into the local crime underworld.

Sita Sings the Blues

Sita Sings the Blues · 2008

Sita Sings the Blues

MovieAnimationDrama

Utilizing the 1920s jazz vocals of Annette Hanshaw, the epic Indian tale of exiled prince Ramayana and his bride Sita is mirrored by a spurned woman's contemporary personal life, and light-hearted but knowledgeable discussion of historical background by a trio of Indian shadow puppets.

Freebie and the Bean

Freebie and the Bean · 1974

Freebie and the Bean

MovieActionComedy

Two San Francisco detectives want to bring down a local hijacking boss. But they'll have to get to him before a hitman does.

The Lady from Shanghai

The Lady from Shanghai · 1947

The Lady from Shanghai

MovieMysteryCrime

A romantic drifter gets caught between a corrupt tycoon and his voluptuous wife.

Magnum Force

Magnum Force · 1973

MovieDramaCrime

"Dirty" Harry Callahan is a San Francisco Police Inspector on the trail of a group of rogue cops who have taken justice into their own hands. When shady characters are murdered one after another in grisly fashion, only Dirty Harry can stop them.

The Enforcer

The Enforcer · 1976

MovieCrimeAction

Dirty Harry Callahan returns again, this time saddled with a rookie female partner. Together, they must stop a terrorist group consisting of angry Vietnam veterans.

Escape from Alcatraz

Escape from Alcatraz · 1979

Escape from Alcatraz

MovieDramaThriller

San Francisco Bay, January 18, 1960. Frank Lee Morris is transferred to Alcatraz, a maximum security prison located on a rocky island. Although no one has ever managed to escape from there, Frank and other inmates begin to carefully prepare an escape plan.

Ip Man 4: The Finale

Ip Man 4: The Finale · 2019

Ip Man 4: The Finale

MovieActionHistory

Following the death of his wife, Ip Man travels to San Francisco to ease tensions between the local kung fu masters and his star student, Bruce Lee, while searching for a better future for his son.

Rate this film

Your ratings make Midnight smarter