A great Wall Super Production

“THE ETERNAL LOVE”

In Eastman-colour

Producer: Kong Nien

Screenplay & Director: Chu Shek-Ling

THE STORY

　　In ancient feudal China, widows were despised if they remarry but honoured if they secluded themselves for the rest of her life.

　　Once upon a time, the Emperor of Ming Dynasty decided to honour the mother of a young scholar who won the Grand Court Examination at the head of the list and a widow of 20 years through all hardship. 　An Arch of Chastity was to be erected at her home country.

　　Actually Madame Yeh, the widow, had marriage forced on her by parents’ order to a sick and total stranger from an old superstition that the felicity will dispel long illness. 　The husband, however, died 3 days later, leaving Yeh a widow yet pregnant from her pre-marriage lover, Cheng, a cousin.

　　A son was born eight months later, and Yeh was consequently secretly abandoned by the suspecting family. She slaved against the direst poverty to bring up her son, with only help from cousin Cheng, who remained near her as a friend, but dared not to marry her for fear of public censure.

　　Now with the undeserved honour of Arch of Chastity, and their son a grown man and a popular scho-lar taking a bride from a neighboring illustrious family, the public will look-up to them more and more. So both Yeh and Cheng thought it would be best to part and never to see each other again.

　　Yet it was so hard to give up even the only solace of being near to each other after so long; Cheng could not tear himself away but came back for saying farewell again and again. It was dawn when he finally left with a heavy heart.　Liu, the bride of their son was in the passage, and saw by the dim early light a'man hurrying out from her mother-in-law’s bedroom and away; she was alarmed and cried out.　The widow heard and thought Cheng was recognized; deeply shamed, she took her own life rather than facing the family.

　　The griefstricken son soon learned of what his bride had seen.　He was terrified in the certainty that the Emperor would never forgive the cheat, but will execute every one of the fsmily for their falsehold to Him. 　To avert such calamity, and still wanting to protect the poor widow’s fair name, Lin decided to fake the cause of the suicide as due to her rudeness to the dead woman earlier.　She thus threw herself at the mercy of the court and hoped to be dealt with clemency.

　　But the Supreme Judge was a rigid moralist, hearing of un-filial conduct toward a widow so much honoured, he sentenced Liu to be executed, and putting the young husband in the terrible situation of either revealing the truth to save his wife, or keeping silent and let her be sacrificed.

　　Meantime, Cheng hearing the widow’s death, returned precipitately. His despair roused the suspicion of the younger men. Becoming certain Cheng was the man coming out of his mother’s room, the son put poison in a cup of wine and urged Cheng to drink it up. He then revealed it and exacted a confession from Cheng.　Thus for the first time he learned the truth of his birth from his father’s dying lips.　Horror stricken at his new crime of patricide, the son also drank from the poisoned cup.

　　A wiser Prefect believed in the innocence of Liu; he pleaded for a last chance and brought her back to the house for further investigation, but too late.　Seeing the two men dying, Liu also drank from the cup, and all died in mute protest against the abominal cruelty of false morality of the feudal times.