Taming of the Princess(1958)

A Hokkien period opera film based on a popular Chinese story about Tang Dynasty General Guo Ziyi’s son, Guo Ai, who rebukes his wife, Princess Sheng Ping, for deliberately missing his father’s birthday celebration because she felt it was beneath her status to attend. The haughty princess complains to her father the emperor, expecting him to exact punishment on Guo Ai for what she regarded as abuse. The wise and benevolent emperor devises a plan to teach both Guo Ai and his daughter a lesson. This is the sole surviving Singapore-made Hokkien (Amoy dialect) film out of only three, and was the first and only Hokkien opera film wholly funded and produced by Singapore or Malaya film companies and talents. It was an unprecedented venture by local arts and cultural groups to document the vernacular Chinese traditional performing arts through cinema. The cast were renowned opera performers from the popular Sin Kee Lin Hokkien Opera Troupe.