Foolish Bride, Naive Bridegroom

(SAN BA XIN NIANG ZHUANG ZI XU)

Bun-tik and Kui-ki are in love but their parents are determined to take over the control of their future. When the couple try to meet, A-kau, Bun-tik’s widowed father, intervenes but Kui-ki entreats him and he agrees to the marriage. However, when he realises that Kui-ki’s mother is the woman who left him years before, he refuses to allow their union. Bun-tik and Kui-ki run away together, but life alone turns out to be harsh and they begin to miss their homes.

“With this crazy comedy, Hsin Chi explodes the return to tradition in his own way by standing up firmly for youth and love. He goes to the point of inverting the portrayal of gender: the hero is locked up like a young woman by his father, who is himself a caricature of the weeping widow. On the other hand, his loved one, Gui-zu, is free to go where she wants, while her mother displays real character. In 1968, dictatorship or not, Confucius or not, nothing will prevent young people from falling in love, even if they have to come to blows about it !” Wafa Ghermani