Blood Stains the Valley of Love(RTRI 2020)

Shot in Singapore and Malaysia, Kong Ngee Company’s first film of their ‘Nanyang Trilogy’ is director Chun Kim’s genre-bending attempt to create a unique sensation. It is notable for its portrayal of Chinese diaspora and race relations. A Chinese-Malaysian’s romance with a Malayan girl faces opposition from his mother, who tricks him to go visit his aunt in Hong Kong. There, his two cousins fall in love with him yet they both drop dead by accident. The man concludes that the Malayan girl has cast a hex on him, thus he decides to go back for revenge. As a romance that involves two men and three women, the film borrows elements of exotic love and sisterly vengeance from Hollywood melodramas. Its intricate structure and pacing amuse viewers with traits of film noir, jungle adventure and thriller. Kong Ngee’s young stars—most notably the dashing Patrick Tse Yin—provide impressive performances. Chun showcases his craft and cinematic muse by incorporating the spirits’ world of Hong Kong and Malaysia’s garden of Eden, while crisscrossing gothic romance with fantastical sorcery in a conclusion for racial harmony. The films of the ‘Nanyang Trilogy’ were restored by the Asian Film Archive and conducted by Imagica South East Asia and IMAGICA Corp. in 2017, using the sole surviving 35mm print of Moon Over Malaya and 16mm prints of all three films loaned from the Hong Kong Film Archive. Moon Over Malaya was restored in 4K and the other two in 2K. The raw and restored digital scans, a new 35mm picture and sound negative, and a new positive print of the restored version of each film have been produced and are preserved by the Asian Film Archive.

Chun Kim (1926－1969) A unique and vigorous Hong Kong writer-director who was active in the 1950s and 60s, Chun Kim participated in the establishment of Union Film Enterprise, and then Kong Ngee Film Company in 1955. His films are mostly modern melodramas and realistic comedies, which deal with subjects like middle-class sentiments and intellectual concerns. Among his many excellent works are A Mother’s Tears (1953), Autumn (1954), Parents’ Hearts (1955), and more.