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同床異夢 (1960)
The Bedside Story


Reviewed by: Stephe
Date: 01/27/2011

The Bedside Story is a strange film. While it has broad comedic
aspects, it's mostly the story of a crafty actress, played by Li Mei,
who seduces her star director, played by Kelly Lai Chen, into marrying
her despite the protestations of the director's newspaper reporter
brother, played by Zhang Yang. Zhang Yang tries to explain to his
lovestruck brother that his fiance is not in love with him and only
using him to further her career, but Kelly Lai Chen is smitten and
willfully deluding himself. Zhang Yang tells his secretary, Wang
Lai, who is in love with him, that he'll expose the actress's sordid
past if she doesn't do right by her brother. She threatens to leave
him if he does such a thing before Li Mei actually deserves it.

This is the only time I've ever seen Wang Li play a young woman instead
of some variety of matriarch, and the two-piece business dresses she
wears are very flattering. She's not really convincing as a youthful
woman, though; she is no Kitty Ting Hao, and no Lucilla You Min,
either.

Anyways, Li Mei turns out to be an even more horrid wife than Zhang
Yang suspected: she lives in a room separate from Kelly Lai Chen and
parties night after night with her producer, played by Wu Jia-Xiang
(who usually plays sycophants in Shaw Brother films), who is in love
with her and still chasing her despite the fact that she is married.
Eventually, Zhang Yang gets wind of it, and he gives Li Mei a list of
ultimatums, threatening to ruin her with a newspaper expose.

I really like Li Mei, so I was uncomfortable watching this film,
because she mostly plays a self-centered jerk even worse than Zhang
Yang was in Sun, Moon and Star. While not nearly the tyrant that Roy
Chiao was in A Story of Three Loves, she is quite imperious and makes
life a living hell for the house servants and her husband with her
complete lack of empathy. In a way, The Bedside Story is like Bachelors
Beware turned inside out: instead of a chipper and outgoing Linda Lin
Dai manipulating a clueless Zhang Yang, we get a protective Zhang Yang
manipulating a self-serving Li Mei, who in turn manipulates the clueless
Kelly Lai Chen.

I didn't like it when Zhang Yang's sister treated Li Mei and her daughter
like dirt in For Better, For Worse, and I didn't like it when Li Mei
treated her husband and servants like dirt in The Bedside Story, either.

Strangely, in this film, Kelly Lai Chen is not the fey wet noodle he
often plays, despite his being a pushover for whatever his wife tells
him to do, so when he finally gets fired up and gets some gumption, it
is entirely believable.

Why the film is named The Bedside Story, I don't know.

Reviewer Score: 5