The Bride with White Hair

The Bride with White Hair
Film poster
Traditional 白髮魔女傳
Simplified 白发魔女传
Mandarin Bái Fà Mó Nǚ Zhuàn
Directed by Ronny Yu
Produced by Ronny Yu
Clifton Ko
Raymond Wong
Screenplay by Ronny Yu
Lam Kei-to
Elsa Tang
David Wu
Story by Liang Yusheng
Starring Brigitte Lin
Leslie Cheung
Music by Richard Yuen
Cinematography Peter Pau
Lee Tak-shing
Edited by David Wu
Production
company
Ronny Yu Films Ltd.
Distributed by Mandarin Films Distribution Co. Ltd.
Release date
  • 26 August 1993 (1993-08-26)
Running time
 92 minutes
Country Hong Kong
Language Mandarin
Cantonese
Box office HK$19.8 million[1]

The Bride with White Hair is a 1993 Hong Kong wuxia film directed by Ronny Yu, starring Brigitte Lin and Leslie Cheung.

The film's main character, Lian Nichang, is loosely based on the protagonist of Liang Yusheng's novel Baifa Monü Zhuan, which served as source material for the 1982 film Wolf Devil Woman. However, Yu saw the film as a Romeo and Juliet story and said that the lovers' struggle against fate and their heroic duty inspired him more than the familiar trappings of most wuxia films.[2] As such, the film departs significantly from the original source.

A sequel, The Bride with White Hair 2, directed by David Wu, was released later in the same year.

Plot

Zhuo Yihang was raised by Taoist Ziyang of the Wudang Sect and groomed to be a chivalrous swordsman. He is tasked with leading a coalition force formed by the eight major orthodox martial arts sects to counter an evil cult.

During a battle against the cult, Zhuo Yihang meets a young woman, Lian Nichang, and falls in love with her. She is an orphan and was raised by wolves as an infant before being adopted by Ji Wushuang, the conjoined twins who lead the cult. After consummating their romance, Lian Nichang decides to leave the cult and follow Zhuo Yihang in pursuit of an ordinary life away from the martial artists' community.

Lian Nichang succeeds in leaving the cult after suffering great pains. Meanwhile, Zhuo Yihang returns to Wudang and is horrified to see that his fellows have been murdered. The coalition members believe that Lian Nichang is responsible so they attack her when she arrives to meet Zhuo Yihang. Zhuo Yihang is forced to turn against Lian Nichang.

Devastated by her lover's betrayal, Lian Nichang morphs into a vicious white-haired killer and slays all the coalition members present. Suddenly, Ji Wushuang appears and reveals that he/she is actually the one who killed the Wudang members. Zhuo Yihang and Lian Nichang join forces to defeat and kill Ji Wushuang. However, even after the victory, Lian Nichang vows never to forgive Zhuo Yihang for betraying her and walks away while he looks on helplessly.

In a brief epilogue set years later, Zhuo Yihang is alone in a remote mountain region guarding a rare flower that is said to bloom only once every several decades and has the ability to reverse the effects of ageing (turning white hair back to dark). Believing that it can cure the harm he has inflicted on Lian Nichang, he awaits for the return of his loved one and hopes that she will show up.

Cast

References

  1. ↑ The Bride with White Hair at the Hong Kong Movie DataBase
  2. ↑ "Mad Blood Stirring" (p. 4) by Eleanor M. Farrell
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