Review of Movie: The Legend of the Mad Phoenix (1997)

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ABOVE: Tse Kwan-Ho as Kong Yu-Kau in "The Mad Phoenix". (Pictures taken from Io's website on The Mad Phoenix and Spring-time Stage Productions website on past productions.)

Title: The Legend of the Mad Phoenix (1996/7)
Script by: Raymond To Kwok-Wai (for memorable portions of the script, click here)
Director: Clifton Ko Chi-Sum
Cast: Tse Kwan-Ho, So Yuk-Wah, Poon Chan-Leung, Ng Yee-Lei, and Leung Hon-Wai

"Naam Hoi Sap Saam Long" (a.k.a. "The (Legend of the) Mad Phoenix" or "Nan Hai Shi San Lang" (mandarin translation)) (1996) has to be one of the best Hong Kong films I've ever watched. It is one of those films that gets you thinking afterwards. Stage and film actor Tse Kwan-Ho won the Taiwanese Golden Horse (Asian equivalent of the Academy Awards) Best Actor award in 1997 for his portrayal of the title character.

The legend of the prodigal Cantonese playwright Kong Yu-Kau (1909-1984)(played by Tse Kwan-Ho a.k.a. Xie junhao) is narrated by a storyteller in present-day Hong Kong. The narrator tells of Kong, the thirteenth son of a well-to-do government official in the South Sea region of China. Kong was a brilliant, playful, and defiant boy who loved traditional Cantonese opera. Fast-forward ten years and we find Kong an arrogant, top-of-the-class medical school student. He soon fell in love with his classmate Lily and abandoned a promising career in order to be with her when she left for Shanghai. He returned home to Guangzhou two years later, his clothing in tatters. Unable to continue his medical studies, Kong took up teaching and spent his free time watching Cantonese operas. He regularly frequented performances by one of the leading opera singers of the time, Sit Gok-Seen (played by Leung Hon-Wai a.k.a. Liang Hanwei), and in his spare time, Kong would also compose songs and write plays. His talent was quickly recognized when Sit invited him to join his opera company as playwright, and Kong soon achieved great fame in the field of Cantonese opera.

Kong also developed a notorious reputation for being arrogant and obnoxious, but nevertheless he was still highly sought after as playwright and songwriter. At the height of his career he plucked his niece Mui-Seen (played by So Yuk-Wah a.k.a. Su Yuhua) from life as a bar-girl into the glamour of movie stardom literally overnight. Kong also took the young Tong Dik-Sung (played by Poon Chan-Leung a.k.a. Pan Canliang) under his wing, and teacher and pupil bonded like brothers. Tong would eventually go on to become one of the best known scriptwriters in Hong Kong.

ABOVE: The scene where the young Tong asks Kong to take him as pupil. (Picture taken from the Hong Kong Film Critics Society review of "The Mad Phoenix".)

Beneath Kong's gruff and arrogant exterior was indeed a soul with compassion and strong moral values, and when the Japanese invasion was near, he decided to stay and write plays to boost military morale after sending his pupil Tong away to the safety of Hong Kong.

ABOVE: The scene where Kong and Tong say their farewells to Sit, as Sit departs for Hong Kong upon invasion by the Japanese. (Picture taken from the Hong Kong Film Critics Society review of "The Mad Phoenix".)

Kong's plays about keeping one's virtues and upholding strong moral values in the time of war were not well received by the military whose tastes ran increasingly towards western style cabaret shows. His outspoken nature and temperament, stubbornness, and arrogance made numerous enemies. When the war was over, Kong found himself out of favour with most of the newly established theatre companies and opera houses. Public tastes were changing, yet Kong was unwilling to compromise his artistic ideals to please theatre-going audiences. A chance encounter with Lily, who was now married and who no longer recognized the penniless Kong, brought him such despair that on his train ride back to Guangzhou he attempted suicide by jumping off the train. He barely survived and went mad, but there were times when he would appear to be able to think clearly. Such inconsistencies lead one to wonder if he'd decided to adopt this "craziness" in order to escape the real world which had not been entirely kind to him.

Kong wandered the streets of Hong Kong from around 1950 until his death in 1984. He carried with him rolls of old newspapers and a blank piece of paper on which was written the title to a painting, "White Phoenix on a Snowy Mountain". The painting came alive only with imagination and symbolizes the creativity of a genius that can bless or destruct--creativity that is a gift and the reason for being and creativity that when unfulfilled could undo even the most tenacious and persevering artistic soul. One gets the feeling that Kong is the struggling genius at odds with his time and place.

ABOVE: Depiction of the painting "White Phoenix on a Snowy Mountain". (Picture taken from Io's website on The Mad Phoenix.)

Kong trod the streets of Hong Kong shoeless. He once placed a prank call in English with the police department to summon a whole troop on account of what he described as a theft. Upon arrival the police found this madman with nothing on him that was worth stealing. Kong told them this: "What I lost was a pair of shoes, but you guys are too chicken-shit to arrest the thieves." When asked who these remarkable thieves might be, he said, "The thief who took my left shoe is called "Englishmen", the one who took my right shoe is called "Japanese"... the Chinese lost their shoes to these foreigners, so now we have nowhere to go!". These comments were far from nonsensical babblings; they reflect his concerns and patriotism towards his native country.

On various occasions, relatives and former friends such as Sit, Tong, and Mui Seen have tried to help Kong re-assert himself and re-connect with life, but to no avail. He was sent multiple times to stay at the Tsing San psychiatric hospital in Hong Kong but was always released on good behaviour. The elderly Kong also spent a number of years living at the Pauline Temple in the outskirts of Hong Kong where his multilingualism made him the perfect tour guide for foreign tourists visiting the temple. Any semblance of normal life that Kong might have re-established were destroyed upon learning about his father's death from starvation as a result of oppression from the Chinese government. Kong lost all hope for life and went back to wandering the streets. He was found frozen to death, shoeless but still clutching his painting of the imaginary white phoenix on the imaginary snowy mountain. The film ends with a touching montage of people from different walks of life, the rich and the poor, the humble and the snobbish, that the narrator encounters on his way home.

Overall rating: A

(The above review also appears in the Hong Kong Movie Data Base as well as the Internet Movie Data Base.)

For brief reviews on this movie by the Hong Kong Film Critics Society, click here.

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