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MESDAMES BUTTERFLY Article Year: Tuesday - October 7, 2003 Written by: Ho Ai Li (- from TheStraitsTimes INTERACTIVE) |
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Former movie idol Ivy Ling Po reprises her role as The Butterfly Lovers' Liang Shanbo tonight at the Indoor Stadium, with Hu Chin playing her lover THE Butterfly Lovers have reunited and will play out their tragic love story in a musical tonight at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. Butterfly Lovers 40 will see former Hong Kong movie queen Ivy Ling Po, 63, reprising her role as Liang Shanbo.  Playing opposite her as Zhu Yingtai is 1970s Taiwanese actress Hu Chin, 56.
Often called the Chinese Romeo And Juliet, the story is about Liang Shanbo, a scholar who becomes best friends with a schoolmate named Zhu Yingtai. Zhu is later revealed to be a girl in disguise, and Liang falls madly in love with her. But his sweetheart has already been betrothed to another man. Liang dies of grief while Zhu kills herself. The two are reunited in death as butterflies. The story, originally titled The Tragedy Of Liang Shanbo And Zhu Yingtai, is said to date back to the Tang Dynasty (618-907). In 1963, Ling shot to fame in Love Eterne, a Shaw Brothers movie based on the folktale. Set in olden times, the Mandarin movie became known as a huangmei opera movie, with songs inspired by a style of folk melody that originated in Hubei province more than 200 years ago. The movie was directed by the late Li Han-hsiang, who had earlier made box office hits including 1959's The Kingdom And The Beauty.  Love Eterne smashed box office records. In Taipei alone, it ran in three theatres for 62 days.
Ling also won a Special Performance award at the Golden Horse ceremony that year for her role in the movie, which won a total of five Golden Horse awards. Last year, Ling and some other members of the film agreed to reprise their roles in a musical in Taiwan. Titled Butterfly Lovers 40: Liang Shanbo And Zhu Yingtai, it enjoyed nine sold-out shows there. Singapore's Unusual Productions decided to bring it here for one show after learning of its success. A Chinese orchestra, as well as sets and costumes, have been flown in from Taiwan for tonight's show. More than 95 per cent of the tickets have been sold. The musical will travel to Kuala Lumpur this weekend before returning to Taiwan for more shows. There are also plans to stage it in Australia and Europe next year. Hu's role as Zhu Yingtai in Love Eterne was originally played by Betty Loh Ti, who died in 1968. Other cast members of the movie appearing in the musical include Lee Kun, 74, who plays Liang Shanbo's valet Si-chiu, and Ren Jie, 69, who plays Zhu Yingtai's maid. The average age of the cast may be 65, but Ling says everyone is determined to put on a good show. 'After all, we won't have the chance to celebrate another 40 years,' she quips. Butterfly Lovers 40: Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai is on tonight at 8pm at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. Tickets at $78 and $98 are still available from Sistic outlets (Tel: 6348-5555). She drove her fans crazy MENTION the name Ivy Ling Po and middle-aged fans may recall the frenzy sparked off by her visit to Taipei to promote her hit movie, Love Eterne, 40 years ago. The 1963 event caused pandemonium and mass hysteria when 200,000 fans packed Taipei's Sungshan International Airport to catch a glimpse of her. 'The success of the movie was incredible,' remembers Ling in an interview at the Marina Mandarin Hotel yesterday. For many people, Ling is Liang Shanbo. In fact, the star, now 63, is still referred to as 'Liang Xiong' (Brother Liang) in Taiwan. Looking smaller in person than the willowy male scholars she plays in movies, there is a sense of deja vu when she whips out a fan midway into the interview and starts flicking her delicate wrist, the way Liang does in Love Eterne. Of the Taiwanese visit, she remembers going on parade for hours in an open-top lorry to greet her fans. 'From the first person I saw, my lips never touched for a few hours as I had to keep smiling and greeting my fans,' she says in Mandarin. 'Some shopkeepers set off firecrackers. Others climbed onto street posts. All the windows were filled with onlookers.' Fans were clearly in love with the actress with the handsome features and elegant demeanour. The Butterfly Lovers phenomenon popularised huangmei opera movies and made her a celebrity. She went on to star in other huangmei movies such as Three Smiles in 1969. In 1989, she retired and moved to Toronto with husband Chin Han, a 1960s actor. Ling, who has three sons, made guest appearances in shows in the United States and Canada after her retirement. Butterfly Lovers 40 is her biggest post-retirement performance to date. Although she had never sung in a live musical before, her performance has been praised and has won her new fans. Her good friend, 1970s actress Hu Chin, says: 'Ling can still hold her own today because of her talent. Younger artists should train more and build a good foundation and not just record songs in the studio.' As Ling told local Chinese entertainment weekly, You Weekly: 'I never thought that after 40 years, there are still so many people who like The Butterfly Lovers. It has certainly made me very happy and excited. ' It is a triumph for her in another sense. Like Hu, she is a breast cancer survivor. In 2001, Ling discovered that she had breast cancer and had surgery for it. She has been in remission since, and says matter-of-factly: 'Birth, ageing, illness and death are a matter of life.' Born in Amoy, South China, in 1940 as Jun Haitang, she started appearing in movies under the name of Xiao Juan when she was just 14. She was doing dubbing work for Shaw Brothers' Dream Of The Red Chamber when she was plucked from obscurity to star in Li Han-hsiang's Love Eterne in 1962. She cemented her movie queen status with her turn in Lady General Hua Mulan in 1964, which won her the title of Asian Movie Queen at the 11th Asian Film Festival. Looking back on her career, she says: 'I feel very, very fortunate. Not every actor has the chance to appear in a movie that has proven to be so popular. How can I not feel fortunate?' Note: There is another lenghthy section on Hu Chin. Refer to the original article for more information. Source: http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/life/story/0,4386,213358,00.html |