血染相思谷 (BLOOD STAINS THE VALLEY OF LOVE) (Singapore, 1957, Chun Kim 秦剑 & Chor Yuen 楚原)

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[血染相思谷 (BLOOD STAINS THE VALLEY OF LOVE)] crosses genres – from poetic wenyi melodrama based on an interracial love story, to a thriller-mystery, then a ghost story, and finally to a kind of social-conscience film calling for interracial brotherhood… Chun Kim, who was the most talented of the Cantonese directors in the 1950s, handles all these elements deftly. The film’s generic complexities involve a high level of experimentation while the director never loses sight of the aim to ‘educate.’ Indeed, there is a fine balance — some might say, a thin line — between education and entertainment. If we regard BLOOD VALLEY as a rather unusual film, which traverses and negotiates the familiar genres of the Cantonese cinema of the 1950s, it has more entertainment value than educational value. —Stephen Teo, Asian Film Archive

The first entry in the Kong Ngee Company’s “Nanyang Trilogy”, 血染相思谷 (BLOOD STAINS THE VALLEY OF LOVE) is a wenyi (literary)-thriller-ghost story, accompanied by a poetic voice-over narration that frames the film as a flashback for the protagonist, Yip, played by Patrick Tse.

In 血染相思谷 (BLOOD STAINS THE VALLEY OF LOVE), a young Malay woman named Solina, played by Molly Wu Kar, falls in love with a Chinese man (Tse), whose Mother warns him against consummating the romance for fear that the woman might cast a hex on him. When Yip informs Solina that he will be traveling to Hong Kong to visit his sick aunt, she becomes jealous and threatens to place a curse on him, which has the power to bring about the death of any woman who falls in love with him. Supernatural melodrama ensues when Yip falls in love with his cousin, Ah Yi, (Patsy Kar Ling) upon visiting Hong Kong.

血染相思谷 (BLOOD STAINS THE VALLEY OF LOVE) is innovative for its genre-bending (and blending), and was controversial for its time due to its depiction of interracial romance. As noted by film scholar Stephen Teo:

Apart from the genre crossing, Blood Valley is audacious for its treatment of the subject of interracial love and rivalry. It seems… particularly daring when placed within the Singapore-Malaya context, given the traditional friction and prejudices between the two races. One scene actually shows Ali and Yip Ching coming to blows over Solina, which is quite extraordinary in the social subtext of racial friction felt at the time. I doubt that such a scene would have been allowed today either in Malaysia or Singapore as it would be judged too inflammatory and likely to incite racial tension. The subject of kong-tau, while apparently a conceit with a definite generic appeal that could be exploited for its sensational effects (particularly in the horror or ghost story genre), also underlines the subtext of Chinese-Malay prejudices in that it is revealed to be a deception adopted by Chinese mothers to prevent their sons from engaging in interracial romances. Thus the film is a virtual illustration of misplaced belief as well as mistaken identity.

南洋三部曲 (THE NANYANG TRILOGY) is a triptych of films filmed in Singapore and Malaysia that was produced by the Kong Ngee Company in 1957. The films contained within this trilogy are 椰林月 (MOON OVER MALAYA), 血染相思谷 (BLOOD STAINS THE VALLEY OF LOVE), and 唐山阿嫂 (CHINA WIFE). These films were notable in their time for jumpstarting the careers of teen idols Patrick Tse Yin, Pasty Kar Ling, and Nam Hung.

The Kong Ngee Company began shooting the “Nanyang Trilogy” towards the end of 1956. All three films are set in Singapore and Malaya (the latter name was in current usage at the time). Both were British colonies, though in 1956, when the films were shot, British rule was about to end in the Malayan Peninsula. As historian and critic Stephen Teo notes: “The term [‘Nanyang’] refers to Singapore and Malaya, though the Chinese generally use it to refer to Southeast Asia as a whole. That ‘Nanyang’ is practically synonymous with Singapore and Malaya in the trilogy signifies their amorphousness as national entities during this period… The trilogy evokes a nostalgia that alludes to [their] common colonial experience… Thus, the Nanyang Trilogy can be seen as an early example of cross-border or transnational cinema. Nanyang… therefore [signifies] transmutable nations and boundless borders, a transnational state of globalism under colonialism.”

血染相思谷 (BLOOD STAINS THE VALLEY OF LOVE) was restored in Italy in 2018 by L’Immagine Ritrovata in collaboration with the Asian Film Archive. The new digital restorations of the “Nanyang Trilogy” titles are accompanied by a 118-page PDF booklet, published by AFA, which delineates the founding and history of the Kong Ngee Company, the making of the “Nanyang Trilogy,” and the Trilogy’s historical significance and cultural impact over 60 years later.

血染相思谷 (BLOOD STAINS THE VALLEY OF LOVE)
(Singapore, 1957)

Director: Chun Kim (秦剑) and Chor Yuen (楚原)

  • 104 minutes
  • 35mm
  • Black and white
  • Sound
Distribution Format/s: DSL/Downloadable 2K .mp4 file on server

Published By: Asian Film Archive

Institutional Price: $500

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