Dream of the Red Chamber, one of the big four of classic Chinese novels, has been adapted for film and television dozens of times over the past decades. Yet this sui generis Great Wall production daringly transposes the setting to modern-day 1950s. The contemporised story revolves nonetheless around the love triangle between Jia Baoyu and his two cousins. Both girls love him but his heart belongs to only one. The ending, however, is remarkably changed to separation of the lovers as a result of war—the war that was surely still haunting the minds of the filmmakers at the time when the film was made. Not only did Great Wall pour money into building extravagant sets just so to recreate down to the smallest detail the grandeur of the legendary Jia mansion, but the film also boasted of its lavish costume designs for the diverse female cast. (From Hong Kong Film Archive)
Li Li-Hua
as 林黛玉
Yan Jun
as 贾宝玉
歐陽莎菲
as 薛宝钗
Luo Lan
as
Wang Yuan-Long
as 贾政
Gong Qiuxia
as 贾母
平凡
as 薛蟠
Xu Li
as
Chen Qi
as
Hsia Meng
as
Chen Juan-Juan
as 晴雯
Kau Ping
as
