ON NOVEMBER 29, 1989, the world's Chinese community mourned the death of Cantonese opera star Yam Kim-fai. They cried not just over the loss of a talented performing artist, but for the end of an era.
Yam was a key figure in the golden age of Cantonese opera and an icon of modern Hong Kong cinema. She left more than 300 films, many of them classic Cantonese operas penned by Tong Dik-sun, in which she played the handsome male lead opposite her favourite leading lady Pak Suet-sin.
And now the Hong Kong Film Archive is showcasing 23 of her best-loved works in the retrospective In Memory of Yam Kim-fai, as well as a photographic exhibition and series of seminars on some of her most memorable screen personas.
Film historian and archive programmer Law Kar, curator of the screenings, says Yam was a phenomenon in Chinese cinema history. 'It's rare to have someone who performs both male and female roles and be so popular in modern Chinese cinema,' he says. 'There were other Chinese opera stars who performed cross-dressing, but most of them were males performing female roles, such as Sit Kok-sin, but they didn't last long. Most went back to doing straight male roles.
'But Yam Jei [sister Yam] was almost the only cross-dressing opera star who lasted so long, and was so widely popular.'
Born in 1912 on the 29th day of the 12th month (the final day of the lunar year) in Guangdong, Yam was already a big fan of Cantonese opera by the time she left primary school to study the finer points of the art form under her aunt. She was heavily influenced by female opera star Wong Hap-lui and quickly learned to master the highly mannered techniques of her craft.
