Produced by Shanghai Film Studio in 1955 and directed by Shi Wan
The huge success of the Huangmei opera "The Match of Heavenly Immortals" triggered decades of enduring Huangmei opera films in Hong Kong!
The movie was awarded the Second Prize of Excellent Stage Art Film by the Ministry of Culture in 1957.
The Match of Heavenly Immortals is a beautiful mythological story that embodies the aspirations of the lower class working people for free and innocent love. The movie is based on the Huangmei opera of the same name. The script is adapted by Sang Arc, and the main actors are Yan Fengying and Wang Shaofang, who are renowned in the opera world as actors of the Huangmei opera. Yan Fengying creates the image of the Seven Immortal Girls, who are both heavenly deities and earthly village girls, who are both passionate and bold, as well as industrious and wise; Yan Fengying especially expresses the sincere love of the Seven Immortal Girls for Dong Yong in a very deep and touching way. Wang Shaofang's portrayal of Dong Yong is simple, generous, and relatable. These two images, rich in human flavor and strong sense of reality, although mythological, are in fact a refraction of the spirit of the good characters in real life. It is the embodiment of the aesthetic ideals of the working people. After the movie was released, it was also warmly welcomed by audiences at home and abroad. According to the statistics at the end of 1958, the audience in the motherland alone amounted to as many as 140 million people, creating the highest box office record at that time. When "The Match of Heavenly Creatures" was released in Hong Kong and Nanyang, it was also an unprecedented success. In the early sixties, the Huangmei opera film 'Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai' made by Hong Kong's Shaw Brothers Company was staged in Taiwan, taking countless viewers by storm and setting an unprecedented record for sell-outs, and the film was transplanted from the 1954 'Shangfang' produced Yueju opera color film 'Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai'.
In fact, the most popular nowadays is 'Tian Xian Matching', a couple's duet of Huangmei opera.
The plot:
On earth: Dong Yong's family is poor, his father died, and he sold himself into slavery to get money to bury his father.
Heaven: The Jade Emperor's seven daughters play on the Magpie Bridge, spying on the earth.
The Jade Emperor's seven daughters are disgusted with the bleakness of the heavenly palace, and are in love with Dong Yong, so they defy the strict rules of heaven and run to the earth.
The seven women were disgusted by the miserable years in the Heavenly Palace, and were in love with Dong Yong, who defied the strict rules of heaven.
The employer, Mr. Fu, who is not in line with the contract of Dong Yong's new marriage, threatens the seven women to weave ten pieces of silk in one night, and if they are successful, the period will be shortened, and if they are not, the period will be doubled. The seven girls invite their sisters to help them, and the three years of hard labor are changed to a hundred days.
Full of work, return trip, couples are looking forward to the future, longing for happiness, suddenly heard the Jade Emperor's will, so that the seven women immediately return to the palace, or else the disaster Dong Yong, seven women have no choice but to endure the pain of sobbing goodbye, don't swear: "I am not afraid of your heavenly rules of heavy live broken up, I am in heaven and on earth with you, one of the heart".
(Won the East China Opera Observation and Performance Conference Outstanding Performance Award, Script Award, Director's Award, Music Award; according to the film shot by this play won the 1949----1955 Outstanding Film Award.)