Baijin Long (1937)

A wealthy mans son who has a sinecure as a hotel owner poses as a bellhop to win the affections of a woman guest with whom he has fallen madly in love but who seeks a common man who is earning his own way This first Cantoneselanguage talkie was based on a successful 1930 stage musical written by and starring Xue JueXian Sit KokSin the plot of which was in turn inspired by a 1929 silent Hollywood romance called The Grand Duchess And The Waiter which Xue admired The film was produced not in Shanghai by the Tianyi studio headed by the eldest of the Shaw Brothers Shao Zuiweng RunJe Shaw and was so successful in the Cantonesespeaking parts of China that Shaw moved the Tianyi company to Britishadministered Cantonesespeaking Hong Kong to make more Cantonese films in the face of the rightwing Chinese Nationalist governments ban on Cantonese language in favor of Mandarin A sequel to Baijin Long was made in 1937 and the film itself was remade in 1947