- English name：Bride with White Hair
- Broadcast time：August 26, 1993
- Starring：张国荣（Leslie Cheung）、林青霞（Brigitte Lin）、蓝洁瑛（Yammie Lam）
- director：于仁泰（Ronny Yu）
Introduction
Today let’s take a brief introduction of a famous Chinese movie named “The Bride with White Hair“（白发魔女传Báifà Mónǚ Zhuàn)
The Bride with White Hair is a 1993 Hong Kong （香港Xiānggǎng） film directed by Ronny Yu, starring Brigitte Lin and Leslie Cheung.
The film’s main character, Lian Nichang, is loosely based on the protagonist of Liang Yusheng’s novel Baifa Monü Zhuan, which had earlier served as source material for the 1982 film Wolf Devil Woman. However, Yu saw the film as a Romeo and Juliet story and said that the lovers’ struggle against fate and their heroic duty inspired him more than the familiar trappings of most martial arts adventure films. As such, the film departs significantly from the original source.
A sequel, The Bride with White Hair 2, directed by David Wu, was released later in the same year.
Plot
Zhuo Yihang was raised by Taoist Ziyang of the Wudang Sect and groomed to become a young chivalrous swordsman. He is placed in command of a coalition army formed by the eight major orthodox martial arts sects, which aims to prevent an evil cult from infiltrating China. During a battle against the cult, Zhuo Yihang meets a young woman called Lian Nichang and falls in love with her. She was an orphan, and was raised by wolves as an infant before being adopted by Ji Wushuang, the Siamese twins who lead the cult. After consummating their romance, Lian Nichang decides to leave the cult and follow Zhuo Yihang in pursuit of an ordinary life away from the jianghu (martial artists’ community).
Lian Nichang succeeds in leaving the cult after suffering great pains. Meanwhile, Zhuo Yihang returns to Wudang and is horrified to see that his fellows have been murdered. The coalition believes that Lian Nichang is responsible and attack her when she arrives to meet Zhuo Yihang. Zhuo Yihang is forced to turn against Lian Nichang, and she morphs into a vicious white-haired killer after feeling that Zhuo had betrayed her love. In anger, Lian Nichang kills all the coalition members present. Suddenly, Ji Wushuang appears and reveals that he/she is actually the one who killed the Wudang members. Zhuo Yihang and Lian Nichang combine efforts to defeat and kill Ji Wushuang. However, even after the victory, Lian Nichang vows never to forgive Zhuo Yihang for betraying her and walks away while Zhuo looks on helplessly.
Professional evaluation
The film presents a sad and lingering legend of the martial arts world. It is extremely sophisticated in art, lighting, and photography, creating a dazzling martial arts world. Many visual effects are close to the later “comic” new martial arts films. The costumes and scenery have completely broken through the traditional martial arts film model, making full use of lighting to create gorgeous effects, and using almost the method of shooting a fantasy film to manage a martial arts world between reality and imagination.
1、In “The Bride with White Hair”, director Yu Rentai deliberately downplayed the martial arts elements and strengthened the love story in the film. The poignant and desperate love between Zhuo Yihang and Lian Nishang moved many viewers under his lens. The lyrics of the film’s theme song “Red Beauty and White Hair” sung by Leslie Cheung fit the infatuation of Zhuo Yihang in the film very well. The beautiful love in the film was also melted by Leslie Cheung’s affectionate singing.
2、Brigitte Lin’s white-haired witch looks elegant and cool, which matches Leslie Cheung’s romantic knight. The hermaphroditic demon co-starred by Francis Ng and Lui Shaoling is a major breakthrough in Chinese films. Yuen Woo-ping reached the peak of his directorial career with this film. The color tone of the whole movie is gorgeous and gloomy, which is a very discordant feeling, metaphorically representing irreconcilable contradictions and struggles; the characters in the film are full of symbolic meanings, who represents the ruling class, who represents the ambitious, who represents the evil forces, and who represents the selfish ghost, all of which are clear at a glance. However, the symbolic character setting does not make people feel thin and ridiculous. They blend in perfectly with the cold and cruel fables of the rivers and lakes, which makes people shudder.
3、”The Bride with White Hair” is a love elegy by Yu Rentai. The turbulent rivers and lakes, the chaotic world, and the everlasting love were destroyed. The film uses a large number of passionate shots to exaggerate the sincerity of love, and then uses extremely cruel contrast to interpret the meaning of deep love and deep hatred. The color tone of the film is sometimes gorgeous and sometimes dark and gloomy. Since “Rouge”, Leslie Cheung has once again encountered such a role that dares to love but not to be angry. Of course, he played it with ease and precision. Every frown and smile reveals the character’s own personality. That kind of loneliness and beauty, that kind of self-pity, that kind of painful struggle are all reflected in his eyes in an instant.
