COMMENTS

Edward Albee

"THE ARCH is one of those rare films which rekindles my hope that cinema is capable of being an art form."

Bosley Crowther

"In these days when commercial films are abounding with shock assaults on the sensibilities, it is soothing and sensuously rewarding to come upon a serene yet moving work."

Francois Houang

Professor of Comparative Philosophy, University of (Paris, author of "Ame Chioise et Christianisme", "Le Boudhisme de l'Inde a la Chine"; also known for his French translation of Lao Tse’s Works.)

"In this truly Chinese film, where all is discrete and measured, Shu Shuen has succeeded by means of gestures and silence in revealing an extremely intense personal drama. Her arch represents the the death of the soul, a kind of moral suicide."

Hsu Yu

(Novelist, poet, dramatist; leading figure in contemporary Chinese literature)

"Poetic sense is one of the characteristics of most of the successful works of art. "The Arch" is a film that enriches such sense of Chinese classics. It has a unique tempo and is laden with suggestions of passion. After seeing the film I feel as if I had read an old Chinese classical poem of intimate murmurs from the inner chambers."

Albert Johnson

"THE ARCH is reminiscent of a classical story in the Ibsen or Jamesian mode .... The visual aspects are delicately beautiful and the acting is profoundly moving and romantic. There is an indescribable haunting quality about this film — the sort that lingers in the mind when one has seen something rare, exotic and new."

Henry Miller

".... I am also very curious, I must confess, to observe the reaction of Westerners to this film. They need this kind of medicine, if I may put it that way, more than anything. They need the poetry, the fantasy, the quietude, the blissful stillness and the simple human touch with which this film is imbued …〃

Anais Nin

"I was so deeply moved by THE ARCH, aesthetically and humanely. Shu Shuen has achieved a film of poetic beauty, and in this particular era of explicit and vulgarized sensuality this treatment of contained passion is more powerful, reaches an intensity quite rare in films .... I admire a woman so young to have completed such a refined and enduring classique."

Karel Reisz

"Miss Shu Shuen reaches straight out for an enormous theme in her first work. In THE ARCH she gives us a film of great beauty and maturity, an astonishing debut."

Josef von Sternberg

"A film with many magnificent scenes. Interesting direction .... A promising talent."

PRODUCTION NOTES:

"THE ARCH" is a first experiment in many ways: it is the first feature film for the backer, the producer, writer-director, the editors and the first major dramatic role for most of the principal actors taking part in the film.

The production proceeded on insisting on changes whenever local practices and traditional habits of film making proved unsuitable for our purpose. From the method of script-breakdown to set constructions, lighting, wardrobe, make up and to the use of dialogues, actors movements; everything adhered uncompromisingly to our concept.

No time and effort have been spared to make up for the lack of experience. The feature took 18 months to complete and a total of no less than 8,000 working hours for each of the responsible workers behind it.

Although a humble first attempt, we have gathered some well known talents in the field to join force with us in its making:

Subrata Mitra, the internationally renowned Indian Cameraman, who has shot most of Satiajit Ray's films came specially to Hong Kong to work as Director of Photography for "THE ARCH" — his first out-of-India picture.

The breathtakingly beautiful exterior footage is the work of Tai Wan's many times Golden Horse Award winning cameraman, Professor Chi H'u Che.

From Hollywood, we have a sound effect vetran, Del Harris. Among the numerous pictures he had contributed his talent are: "LAURA", "THE ROBE", "LILIES OF THE FIELD" and "THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE" for which he was nominated for an Academy Award.

The heroine, Lisa Lu, who plays the part of Madam Tung, also came specially from Hollywood to make her first Chinese film. Miss Lu was born in Peking. She received her dramatic training at the Pasadena Playhouse. Her first motion picture is "MOUNTAIN ROAD" in which she stars opposite James Steward.

China's Foremost musician, LuiTsun Yuan, the "pipa virtuoso", composed the film score. Music was particularly chosen using only the classical pipa and chin. Mr. Lui explored fastidiously the nature of these two delicate ancient instruments, accentuated their mood and exquisite quality. His sensitive performance complemented the visual images so brilliantly that the film's delicate subtleties become at once communicable.

The making of "THE ARCH" has not been easy, and how much we have accomplished in what we set out to do can be answered only by its audience. Our hope is that it would appear on the international scene of cinema as an intrinsic Chinese film authentically told with the universal language of sight and sound and humanity.

DIRECTOR'S NOTES:

THE ARCH departs from the traditional ways of film making in China and attempts to go back to the method by which Chinese characters (word-symbols) were originally constructed. It is not surprising that this method corresponds closely with the theories of the western concepts of cinema art. For each Chinese character is a picture in itself which conveys an idea, a feeling and a romance of its own.

The story of THE ARCH is subject to many interpretations. Some see in it a conflict between the force of tradition and the force of natural human feelings; some see in it a story of the irony of fate; some see in it the psychological development of a character, and some see in it another love triangle. Whatever the interpretation may be, the story is about a woman tormented and the effect of her inner conflicts upon the other characters. That to me, as the author-director, is the interesting thing.

I see in Madam Tung the helplessness of all of us. She exemplifies the ludicrousness of mankind, the futility of morality, the futility of intelligence, the futility of knowledge and of ethics — the fact that we cannot escape anguish and torment.

For it is pointless to conclude what is right or best for her to do. Her suffering comes not as the consequence of the choice she makes, for one way or the other one lives on. The ludicrousness is that we are forever forced to choose between insidious choices, significant to us because of the inherent weakness of human nature: the vulnerability of our feelings, the limitedness of our wisdom, and our inability to transcend our experiences — our lack of the cosmic sense.

Every character in THE ARCH has good intentions, and is without a pronounced tragic flaw. But the story does not turn out to be a happy one. And that is our lot. So what is there to offer as a comfort but tolerance of each other's weaknesses and compassion for each other's pain.

For a first directing project, THE ARCH is extremely complicated material. But because of its psychological nature, it offers a great deal of freedom for cinematic expressions and challenges creative use of the medium. I attempted to present this dramatic story in a simple detached manner, hoping only to show how similar are people, their needs, their feelings, and the predicaments they face, everywhere in the world. And how time will never change this.