The Arch

95 minutes | 1970 | Fiction | Mandarin | English and Chinese Subtitles

Set in a 17th-century Ming dynasty village in southwestern China, the story revolves around Madame Tung (Lisa LU), a respected widow who heals the sick and teaches. One day, Officer Yang (Roy CHIAO) and his men come to the village, and during his stay at Tung’s home, Madame Tung and her daughter (Hilda CHOU Hsuan) both develop feelings for him. However, the villagers, admiring Madame Tung’s virtue, petition to have a chastity arch erected in her honour, which traps her in a lifetime of solitude.

TANG Shu-shuen, a native of Yunnan Province, China, was born and raised in Hong Kong. After secondary school, she further pursued her studies at the University of Southern California. She returned to Hong Kong in the late 1960s, wrote and directed her debut feature The Arch (1970), and made three more features including China Behind (1974), Sup Sap Bup Dup (1975) and The Hong Kong Tycoon (1979, co-scripted with WANG Jingxi). In 1975, Tang solely founded the film publication Close Up Magazine. She migrated to the US in 1979. In 1981, Tang became the scriptwriter and production manager for the Sino-American TV drama Peking Encounter. In 2012, she produced and wrote an English musical I, Ching, which was performed by the Hong Kong theatrical troupe ‘Theatre Space’ in Los Angeles.