Connie Chan Po-Chu was Hong Kong cinema’s most beloved teen idol in the sixties. She was born 1947 to impoverished parents and sold to a couple of famous Cantonese opera stars. (No, she’s not a relative of Jackie Chan who’s Chinese name is Chan Kong-Sang) Her career exemplary outlines the development of Hong Kong’s movie productions. She played in over 200 movies in many different genres: Cantonese opera, wuxia, action movies, romances, melodramas and youth musicals. (She even starred as a female James Bond in “Lady Bond” and its three sequels – China’s answer to 007 movies.)
Though she quitted the silver screen in 1972 she still has a strong fandom. In 1999 she came back from her retirement and has starred in different successful stage productions. In January this year she was honored with the lifetime achievement Hong Kong Drama Award – kind of Hong Kong’s oscar.
It seems like not one of her movies is available on DVD, so I was happy when I found some very interesting and odd movie clips of Connie at YouTube, just click to watch them and let yourself be carried away to Hong Kong in the sixties:
See happy pilots and flight attendants dancing merrily to a simple tune. This is the first clip I found. It made me wonder if she really worked in Hong Kong – it looks more like propaganda from Peking…
Here she is acting with cartoon characters – seems like electric irons went through times of trouble in the sixties.
See Connie Chan and Lydia Shum singing the Chinese version of the Monkee’s hit “I’m a believer”.
Here’s a typical Cantonese Opera movie: “Flag of Pearls”. The male part is played by Connie.
Here are two interesting fansites: Movie-Fan Princess and in Chinese: Chan Po-Chu Net.
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