The Love Eterne

The Love Eterne is a 1963 Hong Kong musical film of the Huangmei opera genre directed by Li Han Hsiang. An adaptation of the classic Chinese story "Butterfly Lovers", it tells of the doomed romance between the male Liang Shanbo (portrayed by actress Ivy Ling Po, who also sang the character's vocals) and the cross-dressed female Zhu Yingtai (Betty Loh Ti, with singing dubbed by Tsin Ting). The film won 6 awards at the 2nd Golden Horse Awards in Taiwan, including Best Picture. It was also selected as Hong Kong's entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 36th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee. Plot A young 16-year-old girl, Zhu Yingtai, managed to convince her parents to send her to college at Hangzhou on the condition that she went in the guise of a man. Along her journey to the college, she met 17-year-old Liang Shanbo who was attending the same school. They became sworn "brothers" and studied for three years together. Over this period of time, they formed a strong friendship. Yingtai gradually fell in love with Shanbo who, being a bookworm, never did discover what she was despite coming across a couple of oddities. When she was summoned home by her father, Yingtai revealed the truth to her headmaster's wife. Yingtai requested that she be the matchmaker for her and Shanbo and gave her a jade pendant as a token to be handed to Shanbo. Shanbo walked with Yingtai for 18 miles to send off his sworn brother. She tried several times to hint to him her identity during the journey but to no avail, despite insulting him twice in her exacerbation with his denseness. Finally, she found a way and got his consent to matchmake him to her "twin sister". She exhorted him to seek out his fiancee soon before they reluctantly took leave of each other at the pavilion where they first met. Upon returning to school, Shanbo was restless and could not concentrate on his studies in the absence of his sworn brother. Seeing this, the headmaster's wife told him about Yingtai, gave him the jade pendant and bade him to go propose to her.