Zhuangzi Tests His Wife (1913)

Original title

莊子試妻

Directed by

Lai Man-Wai

Genre

drama film, silent film

Country

Hong Kong

Runtime

1h 30m

Rating

5.5 of 10 from 2 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This silent film from 1913 is based on a Chinese play where a philosopher tests his wife's loyalty by faking his own death. It was the first feature film made in Hong Kong and was taken to the United States for screening. No copies of the movie are known to survive today.

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What happens

Zhuangzi Tests His Wife (Chinese: 莊子試妻; pinyin: Zhuangzi shi qi) is a 1913 Hong Kong drama film directed by Li Minwei. It is the earliest feature film of Hong Kong cinema, and the only film made by the Huamei (Chinese-American) Studio, which was co-founded by Benjamin Brodsky, who had sold his Asia Film Company in Shanghai, and Li Minwei. The film was never screened in Hong Kong. Brodsky brought the film to the United States, and it became the first Hong Kong-produced fiction film to be shown in the United States. It is based on the zidishu play "The Butterfly Dream" written by Chunshuzhai. No known prints of the film still exist. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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• Schuldig (1913)
• The Film Primadonna (1913)