Portrait of Lin Ching Hsia
If there is no such thing as getting enough
Brigitte Lin for you, this TV documentary is something that you should watch
if you ever get the opportunity. It is Brigitte – from stem to stern – from
top to bottom – from beginning to end. It is pure unadulterated Brigitte Lin
– dancing, singing, cooking, yakking away and laughing.
This 1991 tribute to Brigitte was made at
an interesting point in her career. She had just made a comeback with Red
Dust for which she received a well deserved Best Actress award after a few
fairly dry years in the late 1980’s, but it was still before her classic roles
in such films as Swordsman II, The Bride with White Hair, Dragon Inn and
Ashes of Time.
I should mention that this film has no English sub-titles, which is a real
shame because Brigitte has lengthy conversations with Tsui Hark's wife, Tsui
Hark, her parents and others. Even though I could not understand the conversations,
it was a pleasure just to watch her face as it becomes so animated and even
giddy at times. She simply comes across as a wonderfully fun person to be
around – personable, warm, charming and totally down to earth. Nary a hint
of Asia the Invincible in evidence!
Though a few scenes of her films are shown
(far too few in fact) and some old pictures of her are displayed, the film
basically allows her to become a tour guide of her early life. So Brigitte
visits the small town and house where she lived as a child – and she needs
to ask an elderly lady where the house is and the woman looks at her – slightly
puzzled – and then goes “aren’t you Lin Ching Hsia!" after which she happily
leads Brigitte down the street and calling out to her neighbors.
Brigitte rides a bicycle with children, goes to her old school and sings
with the kids and cooks eggs for her parents (of which she seems inordinately
proud!) and chats with her then boyfriend – Chin Han. Much of this is clearly
mundane – if it had been almost anyone but Brigitte I would have fallen asleep
long ago. There are two wonderful scenes though that were created specifically
for this special and both take place at the beginning of the film.
Brigitte appears at the start of the film
like a spectacular vision in a low cut stunning gold nightgown and proceeds
to pose like a Goddess on review beneath a giant portrait of herself. She
then chats for a bit with Hark's wife, Shi Nan-sun, changes into another fabulously
elegant burgundy outfit and does a tango with a very young chic Jordan Chan.
Her beauty is heart clutching.
A rating is superfluous for a film like this –
if you love Brigitte see it if you can, if not you probably are not even reading
this!
