The World of Suzie Wong (1960)

I've always loved this movie, a vision of Hong Kong long, long past. A romatic story story of a world that is no longer there either. On my first visit to Hong Kong, many, many years ago I attempted to visit these areas, but even then most of the boat people were gone along with the bustling scenery. Hong Kong is now a very different place...This movie has not been available in the U.S. for many years. I highly suggest that you watch it while you can for a romantic glimpse into a whistful world that might have been, but probably never was. The movie is picturesque and the cast does a good job of portraying a fanciful world that even in 1960 was on the threshold of disappearing. A vision of Hong Kong much more interesting in many ways than the Hong Kong of today.The Yau Ma Tei boat people who lived in the Yau Ma Tei Typhoon Shelter, Kowloon, Hong Kong from around 1916 to 1990 are gone too. The boat people mainly consisted of Tanka people. In the 1980s many families moved to public housing on land under a special Housing Authority scheme. The original typhoon shelter was filled in under the Airport Core Programme in the 1990s. The White Star ferry is still there, but the rest is all gone, I do recommend the Dim Sum restaurant next to to ferry station on the Wan Chai (Chinese: 灣仔) side though. Excellent Dim Sum, but be prepared to be ignored unless you speak Chinese. Please enjoy the movie. Of this whole area only the Jumbo Floating restaurant still remains, the Typhoon Shelter earned the reputation of "Boat Shanghai Street", signifying the flourishing prospect of it as a leisure spot. The typhoon shelter was popular with its featured cuisine and performance, and was conveniently located immediately west of Mong Kok. It attracted not only local people, but also tourists. It was the golden period of the Yau Ma Tei shelter. Yet, there were news reports that suggested that the typhoon shelter jeopardised social order as crimes like gambling, prostitution, and opium trade was reportedly common. Typhoon Shelter earned the reputation of "Boat Shanghai Street", signifying the flourishing prospect of it as a leisure spot. The typhoon shelter was popular with its featured cuisine and performance, and was conveniently located immediately west of Mong Kok. It attracted not only local people, but also tourists. It was the golden period of the Yau Ma Tei shelter. Yet, there were news reports that suggested that the typhoon shelter jeopardised social order as crimes like gambling, prostitution, and opium trade was reportedly common.The movie was shot in Hong Kong.

William Holden, Nancy Kwan, and Michael Wilding! What could possibly go wrong? Well, in this movie, everything. Holden’s body is in just about every scene, but his mind seems to be elsewhere. His reactions to whatever is happening around him are so wooden, it seems possible that he is not actually in that scene but filmed it elsewhere and was then dropped in afterwards. Nancy Kwan, who is very beautiful, plays an illiterate (can’t read or write) prostitute in a seedy bar in a dreadful district of Hong Kong, is imaginative, witty, and, well, entirely unbelievable in the role. A woman in such a place, available to every tourist or sailor, even if born pretty, would soon enough become coarse and sick. Not Nancy, who is as playful and innocent-looking as a sophomore at Vassar (before it went co-ed). As for the story, there isn’t any story, except to the extent they stole the story of An American in Paris where an American aspiring painter (Gene Kelly there, Holden here) lives cheaply in a poor neighborhood (Paris there, Hong Kong here), falls in love with a poor local girl much younger than he (Leslie Caron there, Nancy Kwan here) and is pursued by a rich lady who wants to be his patron (Nina Foch there, Sylvia Syms here). Well, if you really want that story, see An American in Paris.

There are a million romance movies, and I've seen quite a few. There is something special about this one. I've seen it a dozen times, and still haven't tired of it. Nancy Kwan, then a 20ish Eurasian beauty, is wonderful as Suzie Wong, William Holden holds up his end of the romance, and the supporting cast is excellent. There are plenty of exterior shots of Hong Kong circa 1960, which is also interesting. This won't be everyone's cup of tea, but it works very well for me. After watching the film a number of times, I read the book upon which it's based. It had more detail, of course, but it was surprising how well the film captured the story in the book. One tidbit from the book - the character Wednesday Lu, was named that because all the girls had to go to the doctor for an STD check once a week - in her case, on Wednesday.

i watched this on a 4k firestik on 12/28/19 and of all the 1960s converted movies that I have seen this one absolutely was the very best quality I have seen. This is actually a very dark movie about chinese bar girls in Hong Kong after WW2 and Korean Wars who had to makeup fantasy lives to score the sailors and a$$holes they were making money out of one bedroom tryst at a time. If you have ever tried to love someone who made money by exchanging love/sex for cash this movie will hurt your heart and question those decisions. That said, I loved this movie and story intensely and I cried a lot at what the characters went through. The clearness of the movie on streaming alone is worth watching just to appreciate the work needed to make this amazingly clear on streaming.

This film about an American trying to become an artist taking up residence in a down town part of Hong Kong and his relations with the bar girls of the hotel, is one that I have seen several times on TV before and it is always delightful, enjoyable and amusing to watch. The DVD version I purchased had a few scenes which I don't remember in the TV version, but that is probably my memory failing.For the time this was produced I find it surprisingly explicit, I thought the TV version was less so, but again that maybe my memory.Some of the scenes are very perceptive, and these often beautifully capture the bar girl oriental character, so much so that the original writer must have had a very good knowledge of that part of society. The film does, in a clumsy manner, try to address some of the prejudices that surround this area both now and even today but at heart it is, of course, a romanticised story - the book which I read about a year ago, is less so.The novel is well worth reading, the plot differs to some extent, but it goes into much more detail concerning the difficulty of forming a serious relationship in this situation.I purchased the Il Mondo Di Suzie Wong version which has Italian as the default language, but that is easily switched to English. The picture was clear for its day and its mono sound OK, once one had become accustomed to it after a couple of minutes. My DVD came from Amazon marketplace seller uniqueplace-uk, and arrived about a week after ordering. It was not sealed, but could still have been new. One of the clips holding the catalogue booklet inside had broken, probably during transit, but I was still happy with the purchase. For some unknown reason this is one of those excellent films which is often difficult to get hold of at a reasonable price.

I REMEMBER THIS FILM FROM WHEN I WAS VERY YOUNG, AND I HAVE ACTUALLY PURCHASED IT FOR MY DEAR OLD MUM WHO'S BIRTHDAY IS EARLY SEPTEMBER.CANNOT UNDERSTAND WHY SO MANY BLU-RAYS THESE DAYS ARE VIRTUALLY UNOBTAINABLE? GOOD FILMS I MEAN, AND CERTAINLY NOT THE MASS OF DROSS WE ARE PUMMELLED WITH AD INFINITUM.THIS WAS NOT CHEAP, BUT HOPEFULLY MUM WILL BE SURPRISED AND WILL ENJOY.RECOMMENDED.

To me a wonderful film. I had problems with it being a Spanish Bluray, turning off the subtitles and reverting to the original English, but as remasterings go it's excellent. The film's mood is engaging - the only trite aspect being the "fake" Chinese-ified titles - English words written with Chinese pen-strokes.

I saw this film many years ago probably on a small black and white television. To see it now from the dvd in colour and on a large screen is a revelation. What an enjoyable film! Evidently it was not well received by the critics of the time who, it seems to me, did not see it for what it is - a fairy tale love story - and all the better for that! Critics in my opinion sometimes seem to be looking for documentary realism / social rawness and cannot see romanticism because the film is shot in a realistic way. Undoubtably the film is helped no end by the performance of Nancy Kwan. It really is hard to believe that this was her first film. She is obviously a totally natural screen actress. The test of a film for me is - has it got repeatability and since I have done that in part and whole, I guess I rate it highly. With the added bonus attraction of seeing Hong Kong as it was in the 1960s.

This is the movie that made me want to travel. Parts of HK were still like this when I got there. Sad to say (for my memories), this movie is now also an historical piece