In-person: 

Introduction by guest programmer Janet Louie, Ph.D. candidate, Harvard University. Pre-screening Q&A with Louie and Kurt Wong (UCLA ’90), grandson of Tony Quon and Margaret Lew, owners of the Sing Lee Theatre.

Admission is free. No advance reservations. Your seat will be assigned to you when you pick up your ticket at the box office. Seats are assigned on a first come, first served basis. The box office opens one hour before the event.
 

The Story of a Small Town

小城故事, Taiwan, 1979

A man (Kenny Bee) recently released from prison falls in love with a mute woman (Joan Lin) in this classic wenyi film. Wenyi, often translated as “melodrama,” refers to a tradition in Chinese cinema dating back to the 1920s. Characterized by their modern, cosmopolitan sensibility, the wenyi or “literary-art” films of 1970s Taiwan were especially popular among diasporic audiences across Asia and North America. The film’s lasting legacy, however, is its soundtrack — featuring Teresa Teng, whose theme song “Small Town Story” became one of the first major pop hits to enter Mainland China after its 1978 economic opening.—guest programmer Janet Louie

DCP, color, in Mandarin with English subtitles, 94 min. Director: Lee Hsing. Screenwriter: Chang Yung-hsiang. With: Kenny Bee, Joan Lin, Ko Hsiang-ting.

Part of: Echoes from Spring Street: The World of Sing Lee and Chinese-Language Cinema in L.A.