Global InformationTwin Bracelets information
| The Twin Bracelets (Chin.: Shuang zhuo 雙鐲) | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Huang Yu-shan |
| Screenplay by | Huang Yu-shan with Suk-Wah Leung |
| Based on | Twin Bracelets by Lu Zhaohuan |
| Produced by | Lau Tin-Chi (producer) Moon Yiu Wah Mun Yiu-Wa (production manager) |
| Starring | Winnie Lau = Lau Siu-wai (Hsiu) Vivian Chan = Chan Tak-yung (Hui-hua) Roger Kwok = Kwok Chun-on (Kuang/Guang) Michael To Tai-yu (Hui-hua’s brother) Wong Yar-fei (Singing Man) Chung Yeung (Xiong) Chow Tin-Dak (Zhen's husband) Lily Liu Lai-Lai (Hui-hua's mother) Chan Wan-Yue (Hui-hua's sister-in-law) Mak Yan-Wa (Matchmaker) Choi Ka-Lee (Mei Zhen) |
| Cinematography | Bob Thompson Ging-Jiu Lo (assistant camera) |
| Edited by | Cheung Kwok-Kuen |
| Music by | Law Daai-Yau Fabio Carli |
Production companies | Cosmopolitan Film Productions Co., Ltd. |
| Distributed by | Faan A Ying Yip Yau Haan Gung Shut/Panasia Films Limited (Hong Kong) |
Release date |
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Running time | 99 min |
| Country | Hong Kong |
| Language | Mandarin with English subtitles |
Twin Bracelets is a film produced in 1990 by Cosmopolitan Film Productions Co., a Hong Kong-based company that forms part of the film production conglomerate run by the Shaw brothers who are the owners of the Shaw Brothers Studio.[1] S.L.Wei notes that "Twin Bracelets was shown at international film festivals."[2] It has "won the 1992 San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Film Festival Award for Best Feature."[3] John Charles called Twin Bracelets "(a) somber, engrossing drama" that is "marred only by the inevitability of its narrative."[4] The film has been labeled a ‘lesbian’ film, but also a ‘feminist’ film. Some critics have also focused on what they took to be its ethnological aspects. Such aspects do indeed form the background of Zhaohuan Lu's short story ‘The Twin Bracelets’ (1986) which served as the basis of the film script written by the film director, Huang Yu-shan.[5] Huang Yushan who initially worked for Central Motion Picture Company (CMPC) and for the Shaw Bros. is a director who has made a choice in favor of independent film. In her life and work she is attached to feminism. According to Bérénice Reynaud, she is "one of the rare women to work in the Taiwanese film industry."[6] Prof Lai has called Huang Yu-shan "Taiwan's major feminist director."[7] S.L. Wei sees Huang as "an important voice in Taiwanese women's cinema. The fact that her film Twin Bracelets received relatively much attention "enabled Huang to have in-depth discussions with American independent filmmakers and feminist directors. From then on she began to push consciously forward [with] films about women."[8]
- ^ Cf. the article on Huang Yu-shan in: U.S.-China Review, Vol. 17, No. 3, 1993, p.22.
- ^ S. Louisa Wei, "Women’s Trajectories in Chinese and Japanese Cinemas," in: Kate E. Taylor (ed.), Dekalog 4: On East Asian Filmmakers. Brighton UK (Wallflower Press) 2011, p.29.
- ^ Marc Siegel, "Spilling Out onto Castro Street," in: Jump Cut, No. 41, May 1997, p.135.
- ^ John Charles, The Hong Kong Filmography, 1977-1997: a complete reference of 1,100 films produced by British Hong Kong studios. Jefferson, NC (McFarland) 2000, p.326
- ^ See: Fran Martin, Backward Glances: Contemporary Chinese Culture and the Female Homoerotic Imaginary. Durham NC (Duke University Press) 2010, p.244. - Sara Friedman notes that the writer is a "Hui’an native" and that the story first appeared in the journal Fujian wenxue (Fujian Literature). See: Sara Friedman, Intimate Politics: Marriage, the Market and State Power in Southeastern China. Cambridge, MA (Harvard University Asia Center) 2006, p.289; p.314. – The author of the short story graduated in 1966 from Fujian Teachers’ College (Dept. of Chinese Language and Literature). For more information on Lu Zhaohuan see: http://www.3739.net/488545.htm .
- ^ Bérénice Reynaud, "Créteil’s ‘Oriental Films’ Section," in: Screen, Vol. 32, No. 4, 1991, p.442. – B. Reynaud works at the Calif. Institute of the Arts, "holding a joint appointment in the School of Film/Video and the School of Critical Studies."
- ^ Lai Shen-chon (= Hsien-tsong Lai; Lai Xianzong), "A Glow of Art That Transcends the Floating World." [Alternative translation of the title of this essay: The Glory of Transcendent Art; the article is partly quoted in: Lin-zhen Wang (ed.), Chinese Women’s Cinema. Transnational Contexts. New York (Columbia University Press) 2011. - The Chinese version Chāoyuè fúshì de yìshù guānghuá was printed in: The Liberty Times; 3 Nov. 2005. - Also online: http://www.libertytimes.com.tw/2005/new/nov/3/life/article-1.htm)
- ^ S. Louisa Wei, ibidem.