Cindy Law’s Top Picks: 1) Eternal Love (1966) Director Lee Tit, who also directed the opera classics The Purple Hairpin and Butterfly and Red Pear, boldly abandons the traditional for a blend of huang mei diao and Cantonese opera in this beautiful remake of a classic love story. Connie and Josephine Siao portray a young and handsome couple with tremendous chemistry and the outcome is exceptionally refreshing and memorable. 2) The Six-fingered Lord of the Lute (1965) This is an adaptation from Hong Kong’s own wuxia novelist, Ngai Hong. Our Connie plays Lui Lun, the cute young hero who is abducted from his family, then finds himself entangled in a plot by the villainous Lord to exact revenge and reign supreme over the wuxia world. After being orphaned and then jilted by his love, Lui Lun still finds the strength to save all of wulin from this disaster. 3) Young, Pregnant and Unmarried (1968) Chor Yuen showcases Connie’s comic ability plus her purity and innocence in this hilarious yet poignant satire about coming of age and social inequity. The legendary scene where Connie and Lui Kei try to scare each other off with less than perfect looks and then fence with a broom and samurai sword will have you doubled over with laughter. It is apparent that everyone in the film was having a ball. 4) Girls Are Flowers (1966) A poor orphaned girl goes alone to the big city to seek refuge with her nurse maid, her only remaining kin. The harbor boat’s waves and the churning bus wheels magnify the sorrow and the uncertainty of her future. The sentimental opening theme music is an opera classic, “Streaming Tears,” sung by Connie in a modern falsetto but telling the story just like the opera. A sad yet delightful youth film/musical/love story. 5) The Black Rose (1965) Connie and Nam Hung are a pair of playful and invincible modern day Robin Hood sisters with lots of wit and charm. Add cool and handsome Patrick Tse as an opponent/love interest and you have a film full of fun. Chor Yuen does a good job of character building, combines contemporary with tradition, and manages to entertain and have social significance at the same time. 6) The Young Girl Dares Not Homeward (1970) Carefree and wayward Kenneth Tsang harasses and annoys poor school girl Connie, but when they both become homeless, they have only each other. Together, they find the love and strength to face a harsh and unsympathetic society. This film gives a realistic look into the perils faced by those on society’s fringes and is one of the very few Cantonese films not overacted. 7) Opposite Love (1968) A beautiful melodrama by Chor Yuen whose directing skills are most obvious in romances of this kind. You can sense his passion for poetry and all things beautiful by the way he presents Connie. 8) The Black Killer (1967) Connie does not waste a second switching from male to female and vice versa. She also goes from song and dance mode to kung fu mode with the greatest of ease. Female Connie is pretty; male Connie is pretty. Connie and Josephine star in Eternal Love. Connie saves the world of martial-arts from disaster in The Six-fingered Lord of the Lute. Poor orphan Connie goes to the big city in Girls Are Flowers. Connie in song and dance mode in The Black Killer.