A Missing Scene from Floral Princess: An untold suicide of the last Ming emperor
Kitty YEUNG
Hong Kong｜2023｜ Exp｜Color｜20 min｜Cantonese
Reenacting the suicide episode of the last Ming emperor from the classic Cantonese Opera Floral Princess, this film blending Cantonese Opera and contemporary dance elements reveals the journey of the defeated elements emperor accompanied by his faithful eunuch,Wang Sing-yan,on their way to the summit of Coal Hill to end their lives. Apart from inviting new perspectives towards their ambiguous queer overtones, it also explores the crossroads of life and death, authority and obedience, love and sacrifice, power and duty, that befall under the traditional patriarchy.
Director
Kitty YEUNG
Kitty Yeung is a Hong Kong filmmaker, Producer at Nowness Asia, and founder of her own production company Pissbaby. She has held various roles in film productions, including Director, Director of Photography, Producer, and Video Editor. She is known for her experimental and stylized imagery and sound. Her work has been awarded, featured or exhibited in a wide range of outlets such as Hong Kong Sundance Film Festival, NOWNESS, I-D JAPAN, ELLE HK, Tai Kwun Contemporary, Asia Art Archive, ifva Film Festival, and more. She received her Bachelor of Social Science with Honours, First Class, from The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), majoring in Journalism and Communication (Creative Media), minoring in Sociology.
11.12 ㊁ 18:10〡台南新光影城 4 廳〡★ Q&A session with the Director
11.17 ㊐ 10:30〡台南新光影城 4 廳
同場放映：《流離都市》《180°・78°14’n 15°36’e・2013》《這是一個雞場》《跳房子》《有一個地方》
The elaborated aesthetics and body movements of traditional Cantonese opera have always intrigued me. One particular masterpiece that has captured my heart is Floral Princess, portraying a strong female lead Princess Chang-ping, despite a strong patriarchal framework, defies traditional gender roles to pursue her love. I wonder if there’s more to this tale that remains unexplored. Through collaborating with Cantonese Opera artist Jason Kong, I learned that the original script has omitted the suicide scene of Emperor Chong-zhen, leaving many questions unanswered. These ambiguities sparked a desire to explore alternative narratives within this traditional Chinese framework, to look for small gaps, especially towards the emperor-eunuch relationship, that’s not heterosexual under traditional patriarchy, to offer new perspectives by filling the unexplored territories.
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