Yun ni (When The Clouds Roll By, 1968)

Doe Chin

Hong Kong

96 min, color, Mandarin (English subtitles)

Review © 2003 Branislav L. Slantchev

This film has two things going for it. First, the director died the year after the film was made, which may be good or may be bad. Second, and much more importantly, this film was Ching Li's first-ever leading role. We all know what happened to her in the 1970s and how she became one of the best leading ladies in the various period films (especially those directed by Chor Yuen). So this film has the immediate attraction of "original source material" in the sense that it can provide a glimpse of what Ching Li was like when she first started at Shaws.

Ching Li is the schizophrenic Susu	Huang Chung-Shun as Mr. Qiu and Ching Miao as Mr. Xiong

Other than these two curiosities, there isn't much going for the film (well, perhaps Ching Miao starring as Ching Li's father is sort of cool considering that he is, in fact, her real dad). The story is based on a novel by Ko Chih-Fen and not a true story, although it's just mundane enough to make it appear as if it were based on a true story.

A gratuitous shot of Ching Li	Susu's memories are triggered by the song

Susu (Ching Li) is a young disturbed woman. (I know I have not said anything thus far that would distinguish her from all other young women.) She also throws inexplicable fits. (Still not distinguishing her from others.) She also goes to many clubs, spits on waiters, dances with random cretins, and then passes out. (Except for the spitting, still not distinguishing her from others.) In fact, if it were not for the worried Dad (Ching Miao) and the somewhat worried Dr. Qiu (Huang Chung-Shun), one would be hard-pressed to understand that there's anything wrong with the girl apart what's wrong with all of them.

Susu manipulates her mom (Lin Ching)	Hospitals just ain't what they used to be

This is perhaps why Susu herself does not believe she's sick. In fact, her paranoia seems well-founded. Everyone is out to get her. Maybe, just maybe, her refusal to accept her pilot boyfriend's death in a plane crash is not entirely healthy, but on the other hand it may simply be her getting stuck for a longer than usual time on the "denial" stage of grief. While I'm at it, how long are these stages supposed to last? We are told the guy has been gone about 3 months. If she's still grieving about him, is that so unusual?

Yang Fang talking to the scriptwriter	Yifei thinking Susu should get some tan

Susu steals the family car and goes on a rather tame joy ride, which ends with her meeting Li Yifei (Yang Fang), the guy who is clearly supposed to sweep her off her feet and cure her. Unfortunately, he's a doctor and she hates doctors (I would too, if that Kissinger look-alike ran after me with a syringe all the time). Fortunately, he's not a real doctor yet, just an intern, so she can actually like him. Conveniently, she decides that her English is bad and demands tutoring from Yifei. (That would be the "rebound" stage of grief.)

Yifei faking interest in what Susu says	Dear Diary, today I forgot my ex

Yifei is understandably miffed about all this. He didn't study medicine for 3 years in Australia just to become a lowly English tutor. Naturally, he quickly changes his mind when he sees Susu. Who can blame him? I'd teach Swahili if I had to. Somewhat inconveniently, he is also betrothed to Binbin (Pan Yin-Tze), who just happens to be Dr. Qiu's own daughter. This is a problem insofar as Dr. Qiu is Yifei's boss at the hospital. Can you spell "career marriage"?

Mrs. Qiu and Binbin (Pan Yin-Tze)	Totally gratuitous shot of Ching Li

Then Susu learns lots of English, mostly by spending time with Yifei at various clubs, restaurants, coffee-houses, and vista points. She starts a "Dear Diary" journal where she writes down how quickly she's forgetting the pilot. At some point, rumors of the unorthodox tutoring reach Binbin who is in Japan. Although she is apparently dating some dude, she has her mother (Ouyang Sha-Fei) call her dad to tell him to tell Yifei to knock it off, which he does but the latter does not.

No chemistry	Never take your girl to a club with that name

Desperate to cure Susu, Yifei decides to apply more shock therapy. You see, the co-pilot of the plane that killed Susu's ex-boyfriend is still alive although he tends to blame himself for the accident. Yifei quickly finds out that the ex- has died a well-deserved death because the bastard was two-timing Susu with a wife and son in Taipei. At this point one would think that a picture of said family should suffice to convince Susu to forget him (which at this point does not appear to be necessary anymore as the picture is more likely to cause her to recall the dude). However, Yifei applies the time-honored method of confronting the helpless girl with the raging lunatic, who naturally enough attempts to kill her. Susu is cured and thankful although Binbin is less so. In revenge for Yifei abandoning her at a club, she marries the other guy, leaving Yifei (who, one would hope, by now has realized that he loves Susu) to woo Susu. This he does by threatening to leave for Australia.

After having read Susu's diary, Binbin is ready for Slumber Party Massacre IV	Why am I always in pyjamas?

There is nothing really objectionable to the story itself although it would have been better if it were not so damn predictable. Ching Li overacts quite a bit and Yang Fang underacts just to spite her. The director missed a nice opportunity to portray the struggle between duty and love, which would have occurred had Yifei felt bound to Binbin, with the latter completely in love with him. Then the question would have been whether to pursue his new flame Susu or stay with the other one. This is the stuff real tragedies are made from because there really is no correct answer to such a dilemma.

The actors having ignored directions...	...finally realize where they are

Unfortunately, Doe Chin missed the opportunity by making Binbin a spoiled slut who not only viciously maligns Susu, manipulates her own fiancee, and elopes with the guy from Japan, but also happens to appear never to have loved Yifei much in the first place. (The "I did not get married to the other guy before because I wanted to see you first" bit does not strike me as a confession of an undying love.) There was undeniable lack of chemistry between Yang Fang and Pan Yin-Tze, which was excellent because all the huggy-huggy scenes looked forced and unreal. Of course, since the guy has begun falling for another, this made them look very convincing.

Yang Fang is cool	Ching Li is beautiful

Maybe Doe Chin could have forsaken the angle on Yifei and concentrated instead on Susu, which is ostensibly what he does most of the time. There are some very atmospheric shots and excellent ideas, like the singer's reflection in the window at the night club, the shot in front of the glowing "Casanova" sign, and the psychedelic collage of images when Susu is recalling her suppressed memories. Again, however, the opportunity is badly misused because Susu is instantly attracted to the new guy, and since we have not really seen her mourning (she is in denial from the very beginning of the film), it is hard to accept her suffering no matter how many tears she sheds on dates. Here one would have wanted to see a struggle with guilt for being attracted to Yifei even though she had thought she'd always love the other.

The Celestial Pictures DVD has a non-anamorphic widescreen transfer at the correct 2.35:1 ratio that is sparkling clean and free of dust and speckles. One only needs to see the original trailer to understand what I mean. There is only a Mandarin Dolby Digital mono soundtrack, which sounds excellent. The white English subtitles are error- and flicker-free, and are readable all of the time. The DVD is light on extras, with the usual trailers, still gallery, and talent files rounding the good presentation. Overall, a pretty good DVD of an average film. Fans of Ching Li should definitely own this, others may want to give it a try first.

June 16, 2003