Chor Yuen started his directorial career with a bang. From its very first image, The Natural Son establishes Chor as a filmmaker of stylistic flourish, which would be sustained in various forms throughout his long tenure. Adapted from '30 cents' pulp fiction, it is a Kong Ngee melodrama made in the studio's mould, with Westernised characters and trendy middle-class lifestyles. Yet, Chor's first film is not exempt from the social urgency that characterises the Cantonese cinema of his father, Cheung Wood-yau. The film cloaks its entertainment in a moral deliberation on blood ties, its story about the raising of a bastard child a head-on challenge of archaic family values. An ostentatious start for a colourful and eventful career.

Genres

Cast

Patsy Ka Ling

Fong Man-yu

Nam Hung

Fong Man-wai

Patrick Tse Yin

Chui Chung-ming

Kong Yat-fan

Mok Wai-sang

Keung Chung-Ping

Wan Sum-man

Wong Cho-San

Fong's father

Lee Yuet-Ching

Fong's mother

Ma Siu-Ying

Mok's mother