The Natural Son

The Natural Son

  • Overview
  • Cast
  • Crew

Status

Released

Release Date

Mar 11, 1959

Runtime

1h 47m

Genres

Drama, Family

Original Title

湖畔草

Production Companies

Kong Ngee Motion Picture Production Company

Director

Chor Yuen

Description

Chor Yuen started his directorial career with a bang. From its very first image, The Natural Son establishes Chor as a filmmaker of stylistic flourish, which would be sustained in various forms throughout his long tenure. Adapted from '30 cents' pulp fiction, it is a Kong Ngee melodrama made in the studio's mould, with Westernised characters and trendy middle-class lifestyles. Yet, Chor's first film is not exempt from the social urgency that characterises the Cantonese cinema of his father, Cheung Wood-yau. The film cloaks its entertainment in a moral deliberation on blood ties, its story about the raising of a bastard child a head-on challenge of archaic family values. An ostentatious start for a colourful and eventful career.