Tender Tears (1967)
Reviewed by: dleedlee on 2004-06-17
Even I’m hard pressed to say much positive about this dull film. It falls definitely into the ‘women’s film’ category which I have nothing against. This is just a lifeless offering. It probably didn’t help that I watched the second disc before the first disc of the vcd version but that I really didn’t notice may also say something about the story.

The story (from the beginning): Siu Wan (Ting Ying) is a singer at a night club and turns down additional ‘opportunities’. This is to indicate the kind of girl she really is. She quits her job after her fiance Cheung Man (Paul Chu Kong, looking like a youthful Jet Li) borrows money from his boss to pay off her obligations. He tells her the money came from winnings off a colleagues horse racing tip. The pair marry and are live happily though struggling financially to support Siu Wan’s family. Her mother-in-law (Lai Man) thinks she is pregnant when, in fact, Siu Wan is seriously ill. Siu Wan hides the bad news from her family and pretends to be pregnant. When Cheng Man’s boss demands repayment of the loan, Siu Wan secretly goes back to working at the club and apparently not as a singer. When Cheng Man discovers this they argue, she lies and tell him she had an abortion and then he leaves her. The illness eventually overtakes Siu Wan (she marks the days off a calendar) and Cheng Man finally learns the truth when he reads her diary.

Musical notes: The aria Nessun Dorma is used as Siu Wan’s motif throughout the film. Ting Ying twice sings a song that may or may not be a Cantonese version of the theme from The Blue and The Black. And there’s one go-go style song sung by another girl in the film when Siu Wan returns to work at the club. Lai Man listens to a portable radio, a gift from Ting Ying, thats playing a huangmei opera, possibly from the Love Eterne.

On the vcd, the audio track is moderately muffled making it difficult to hear, particularly Ting Ying, and the volume also fluctuates.

Oh, and I almost forgot, the set designer decided to decorate the back of the club bandstand by hanging liquor bottles in the air from strings.

Pass.
Reviewer Score: 5