''A Little Life-Opera'' () is a 1998

Hong Kong film The cinema of Hong Kong ( zh, t=香港電影) is one of the three major threads in the history of Chinese language cinema, alongside the cinema of China and the cinema of Taiwan. As a former British colony, British Hong Kong, Hong Kong had a gr ...

directed by

Allen Fong Allen Fong Yuk-ping (方育平) (born July 10, 1947) is a film director and one of the leaders of the Hong Kong New Wave of the late 1970s and early 1980s. His cinematic style is highly influenced by Italian neorealism. He also usually uses persona ...

. The film, set in

Fujian province Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its cap ...

, is filmed in the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

and stars

Yang Kuei-Mei Yang Kuei-mei (; born 6 September 1959) is a Taiwanese people, Taiwanese actress and television host. She has had starring roles in ''Eat Drink Man Woman'', ''Vive L'Amour'', and ''The Hole (1998 film), The Hole''. Yang has received several awa ...

and

Winston Chao Winston Chao Wen-hsuan (born 9 June 1960) is a Taiwanese actor. He came to international attention for his performance in the 1993 film ''The Wedding Banquet'' and ''Kabali''. He is also known for his roles in ''Red Rose White Rose'' and ''Eat D ...

. The dialogs of the film are entirely in

Hokkien The Hokkien () variety of Chinese is a Southern Min language native to and originating from the Minnan region, where it is widely spoken in the south-eastern part of Fujian in southeastern mainland China. It is one of the national languages in ...

(

Min Nan Southern Min (), Minnan ( Mandarin pronunciation: ) or Banlam (), is a group of linguistically similar and historically related Sinitic languages that form a branch of Min Chinese spoken in Fujian (especially the Minnan region), most of Taiwan ...

) and

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

. It is Fong's last feature film as he has not made any more feature movies since.

Synopsis

Xueyan (雪雁, played by Yang Kuei-Mei) is a 40-something

single mother A single parent is a person who has a child or children but does not have a spouse or live-in partner to assist in the upbringing or support of the child. Reasons for becoming a single parent include divorce, break-up, abandonment, becoming wid ...

who lives in the coastal region of Fujian province. She has a daughter in her late teens and is part of a part-time

Min opera Min opera (; Foochow Romanized: Mìng-kiŏk), also called Fuzhou drama (; Foochow Romanized: Hók-ciŭ-hié), is one of the major traditional opera forms in Fujian Province. It enjoys a good popularity in Fuzhou, Middle Fujian, East Fujian and Nort ...

troupe from the village. When she is invited to perform with her troupe members for a show, she comes across Sanpeng (三朋, Winston Chao), a former troupe actor who is now a businessman. Meanwhile, the troupe struggles to survive as modernity and Western habits clash with the traditional

performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

External links

IMDb entry
1998 films Hong Kong drama films 1990s Mandarin-language films Films directed by Allen Fong 1990s Hong Kong films Films about Chinese opera {{1990s-HongKong-film-stub