The Arch
Presented at the 1968 Festival and little-seen since then, The Arch focuses on a proud widow who has allowed herself to be treated almost as a deity because of her virtuous behavior.
Description
The Arch is reminiscent of a classical story in the Ibsen or Jamesian mode—in an 18th-century village, a proud widow, Madam Tung, has allowed herself to be treated almost as a deity because of her virtuous behavior. When a troop of soldiers arrive to protect the farmers from bandits, the villagers believe this is a reward from the Emperor for having requested that an arch be constructed in honor of Madam Tung and her saintliness. Exactly how Madam Tung manages to control her emotions when the troop captain attracts her (and her daughter also responds to the same man) is the crisis of this romantic tale. The visual aspects of The Arch are delicately beautiful (one notices that the cameraman is Satyajit Ray’s famous technician) and the acting is profoundly moving and romantic. There is an indescribably, haunting quality about this film—the sort that lingers in the mind when one has seen something rare, exotic, and new. —Albert Johnson, Festival 1968
The original black-and-white 35mm negatives of the film have been lost. The restoration was made using extant materials from 1968, including a 35mm release print preserved at the University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, and a 35mm release print preserved and scanned at the BFI National Archive. The digital restoration was undertaken at Silver Salt Restoration. Special thanks to the descendants of Paul Lee; Les Blank Films; and the Hong Kong Film Archive, Leisure and Cultural Services Department. The Arch is one of the films under M+ Restored, an initiative supported by CHANEL. The Arch is presented in support by Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in San Francisco.
Films from the Vault revisits previously presented titles at the San Francisco International Film Festival, highlighting the Festival’s role in championing emerging artists and iconic auteurs and inviting audiences to rediscover these films anew. —Jessie Fairbanks
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Biographies
T’ang Shushuen was born in Hong Kong and studied at the University of Southern California. One of Hong Kong’s first women filmmakers, her first feature was The Arch (1968), the winner of four Golden Horse Film Festival Awards, including a Special Award to its director. Her other films include China Behind (1974), Sup Sap Bup Dup (1975), and The Hong Kong Tycoon (1979).
