Romance of the Western Chamber (film)

Romance of the Western Chamber (Chinese: 西廂記; pinyin: xīxiāngjì), also known as Way Down West, is a 1927 silent Chinese film drama directed by Hou Yao.

Romance of the Western Chamber
1927 Chinese movie poster
Directed by	Hou Yao
Written by	Hou Yao Play: Wang Shifu
Cinematography	Liang Linguang Lai Man-Wai
Production company	China Sun Motion Picture Company (Shanghai)
Release dates	8 September 1927 (1927-09-08) (Hangzhou Theater, China)[1]
Running time	42 min. (orig.) 45 min. (2007 DVD release)
Country	China
Languages	Silent film Written Chinese and French intertitles

Scene from the film.

The film is an adaption of the classic Chinese dramatic work Romance of the Western Chamber by Wang Shifu.

Originally consisting of ten film reels, only five have survived.^[1]

The 2007 USA DVD release by Cinema Epoch has an additional original musical score composed by Toshiyuki Hiraoka.

Cast

^[1]

• Lim Cho Cho - as Cui Yingying, the daughter of the late Prime Minister
• Li Dandan - as Hongniang, the maidservant of yingying
• He Minzhuang (M. C. Noo) - as Madame Cui, the mother of Yingying
• T. K. Kar - as wise student Zhang Gong
• Tsao Yao Dein - as an old monk Fa Pen
• Lee Wha Ming/Li Huamin - as Sung Fei Fu (Tiger Sun), the bandit king
• Lu Ying Lang/Li Yinlan - as monk Wei Hing, the messenger with bō staff
• Wang Longxi - as clever monk
• Hu Chichang - as the White Horse General
• Zhu Yaoting - as the stupid monk
• Huang Ke - as the boy servant

References

1. 1927: "Romance of the Western Chamber" and Ancient Costume Movies. Accessed 26 October 2009.

Further reading

• Harris K. (1999), "The Romance of the Western Chamber and the Classical Subject Film in 1920s Shanghai" in Zhang Y. (ed.), Cinema and Urban Culture in Shanghai, 1922-1943. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1999. pp. 51–73.

External links

• Romance of the Western Chamber at IMDb
• http://www.dvdtalk.com/silentdvd/romance_of_the.html