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House of the Lute
1
A film directed by Lau Shing Hon, 1979 |
慾火焚琴
2
劉成漢作品 Images from House of the Lute (enlarge) 3 |
At present this 90 minute Cantonese feature film seems to be the only feature film that uses guqin throughout (see Appendix, Guqin in film). I wrote, played and arranged all of the music using qin except for one segment in the middle (30.26 - 39.52 of the VCD), which has music by then Cheung Chau neighbor Colin Churchill (with bongos by Au Yiu Kwok4). The film tells the story of what happens when an old man with a beautiful young wife hires a young gardener. The director has the old man engage in the scholar's Four Arts, deciding to represent this by having a film score using only guqin. The film starred (see image, left to right), Lok Bec-Kay, Kwan Hoi-Shan, Simon Yam Tat-wah, and Chan Lup-Pun.5
The first review was in the South China Morning Post 19 March 1980.6 In 1979 it had been invited for competition in the Chicago International Film Festival; it then was shown in Edinburg, Mannheim, London National Film Theatre and the Hong Kong International Film Festival.
As of December 2009 "162manman" in Hong Kong had uploaded to Youtube the film in 12 segments, as follows:
Except for Colin's guitar and flute music in the middle, the music is all solo guqin played by me. Some of it is straightforward traditional music, some has the timing altered to fit the movements (I had to teach Kwan Hoi-Shan to pretend to play qin in time with my recording, then where necessary alter the sound track to better fit his hand movements), some is motifs from these pieces selected to fit the scenes, some has been electronically altered to enhance the mood. Most of the music came from four Shen Qi Mi Pu melodies. These melodies traditionally have certain associations which were to a certain extent used in making the film score:
This, of course, could mean either that the film score was designed for people who were familiar with these melodies, but who might then consider these associations too obvious; or that this was intended to be my little secret, and thus irrelevant to the listener.
Under Acquiring a Qin there is a relevant comment regarding the qin seen (but not heard) in this film.
Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a
separate page)
1
House of the Lute (慾火焚琴 Yu Huo Fen Qin)
There is further information on this film on various sites including www.kowloonside.com. Regarding the use of "lute" in the title, see
Qin: lute or zither?.
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2
慾火焚琴
The Cantonese pronunciation of this in the Yale system is Yuk Fo Fan Kam"; the director suggested "Yuk For Fun Kum". For some reason the online transliteration of the film title into Cantonese on other sites seems always to be given as Yuk feng fai kam, clearly a mistake as well as a testimony to how the tendency for people to build up their website by blindly copying information off other websites sometimes leads to a spread of misinformation.
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3
Images
See also the poster.
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5
Lead actors
洛碧琪 Lok Bec-Kay, 關海山 Kwan Hoi-Shan, 任達華 Simon Yam Tat-wah, and 陳立品 Chan Lup-Pun.
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6
Review
By Barry Girling; see .jpg copy.
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Guqin ("old qin") music can be very effectively used for a film score. My first effort at this was providing music for the Hong Kong feature film House of the Lute (see above). Doing this work brought up for me interesting questions about intercultural clichés. Unfortunately, to my knowledge no film since House of the Lute has tried to take advantage of the unique and evocative sounds of a qin with silk strings.
Here are some examples of the qin as used in other films:
Other versions of this title
(中文) are dated 1987 (remake of 1960), 1990 (A Chinese Ghost Story 2), 1991 (A Chinese Ghost Story 3), 1997 (remake in animation) and 2003 (a TV series of this title). Of these only the following are potentially relevant here:
Chinese Ghost Story Xiao Qian (1997, animated version, also Tsui Hark)
In sum, there are many ways qin can be utilized effectively in film scores, and not just in period films. However, a comparison of Chinese films made prior to the development of metal strings during the Cultural Revolution with those made afterwards shows clearly that this has led to not just a change in the basic sound of the qin, but also to a major change in attitude towards its significance.
Return to top
or to the Guqin ToC
Appendix: Guqin in film
Details in progress (December 2009)
See also
further comment: the original uncut version has a scene where Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang show their likemindedness by successfully playing a qin "duet" together
(it repeats particularly flashy phrases from the melodies
Guangling San and the
modern Liu Shui as played by 趙家珍 Zhao Jiazhen).
In one scene two men shoot weapons from a pseudo-instrument that is a sort of qin and zheng hybrid.
This is perhaps the best known recent use of qin in film. The opening sequence shows a replica of an instrument (see picture) often considered a predecessor of the qin
(incorrectly, I believe); the actual music is played on a modern metal string qin by 劉麗 Liu Li, who apparently suggested motifs from the modern Liu Shui as a basis for
Tan Dun's composition.
Loosely based on the story of Gao Jianli and Emperor Qin Shi Huang as told in the Records of the Grand Historian
(see Wen Xing), it changes the original zhu into a qin; the qin is played by 李祥霆 Li Xiangting (further details to be added; compare The Emperor and the Assassin).
This film is based on a 1967 novel with the same Chinese title but in English known as Smiling Proud Wanderer. The qin is essential to the original story, there is some reference to its philosophy, and a qin does appear on screen at important moments, but the music is orchestral and totally devoid of any connection to qin music or qin aesthetic.
Seeking further details.
Also titled "The Ghost with Six Fingers", it features an all-powerful weapon called a 天魔琴 tianmo qin (in English subtitles called a "magic lyre"). However, the "qin" music is played on a zheng and the case in which it is carried around is boxier than that of a real qin. Two sequels were rushed out later in 1965.
This film is loosely adapted from the tale Nie Xiaoqian (聶小倩) in Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio (聊齋誌異
Liaozhai Zhiyi). The Liaozhai version (it has been translated by Wang Juan) does not mention qin or any other musical instrument, but the presence of the qin in the film, though short, is significant enough that the film's
poster shows the scene in which Nie (the actress is 樂蒂 Betty Loh Ti) plays it. In the film Nie is a female ghost living in an eerie temple, where she is forced to seduce young men so that a witch can kill them and drink their blood. A young scholar, 寧採臣 Ning Caichen (also written 𡩋采臣), comes to spend the night in the temple, where from 16.10 to 18.45 in this
online version (Chinese subtitles only) he hears Nie play the Mei'an qin melody Yu Lou Chun Xiao on a silk string qin (the actual player is not identified in the credits for the online version). At 20.15 a string breaks (斷絃 duan xian) when Ning enters her pavilion. According to the Wikipedia entry for the 1987 remake, "The string breaking (a common metaphor for a troubled heart or being surprised) is symbolic of the parting of ways, and could represent an absolute separation. The Cantonese Chinese expression for this is 'tyun yun' (團圓) and it could be directly translated as 'breaking fate'. She is a ghost and he is a mortal and that fate that had briefly brought them together had at that point broken. They could never have been together anyway and they had to part so as to preserve the natural order of things."
This version keeps the qin but modifies its treatment as well as other details of the story. Here, at about 19.40 of an online copy, just as the scholar is about to notice skeletons climbing in the attic above him, he is distracted by the sound of a guzheng; but then the images we see beginning at about 19.50 are of Nie strumming a qin. This zheng sound with qin images continues through 20.54, when we see the qin string break. Considering the fact that so few people today seem to be aware of how the abandonment of silk strings has changed the qin sound and aesthetic, perhaps it is not surprising that few viewers or critics seem either to have noticed or cared about this.
Here, the story is quite modified, its focus becoming "lighthearted slapstick comedy". Music not yet heard.
There is apparently a scene showing Confucius playing the qin; I am seeking further details.
