Director: Hsu Chiao Meng
Runtime: 83 mins
Country: Singapore
Language: Hokkien with English and Chinese subtitles
Rating: PG
Full Synopsis
Taming of the Princess is a Hokkien period opera film based on a popular Chinese story about Tang Dynasty General Guo Ziyi’s son, Guo Ai. The story unfolds that Guo Ai had rebuked and hit his wife, Princess Sheng Ping, who had deliberately missed her father-in-law’s birthday celebration because she felt it was beneath her status to attend. The haughty princess complains to her father the emperor, expecting him to exact punishment on Guo Ai for what she regarded as abuse. The wise and benevolent emperor devises a plan to teach both Guo Ai and his daughter a lesson.
There were three Amoy-dialect films shot entirely in Singapore and Malaya in the 1950s. Two of them – Love Deep As The Sea (directed by But Fu, 1954) and Lovesickness Sent from Afar (directed by Yao Ping and Hsu Chiao Meng, 1955) – were produced by Singapore companies. The third film, Taming of the Princess, was financed and produced by a Singapore film distribution company, Hong Kong United Co. Ltd. It is the sole surviving local Hokkien film from the 1950s as the other two films are presumed lost.
Taming of the Princess was digitally restored by the Asian Film Archive in 2015 using a 16mm release print loaned from the Hong Kong Film Archive.
Courtesy of Mr and Mrs Chan Kam Yuen.
Oldham Theatre’s opening hours
Tickets will go on sale Friday, 20 May 2022.
Friends of AFA members may select the “Friends of AFA” option and enter your membership number if you wish to redeem your remaining complimentary tickets.
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