With: Kenny Bee, Sylvia Chang, Sally Yeh, Ching Tien, Loletta Lee, Shing Fui-On, Manfred Wong, Ging-Man Fung, Fung Woo, Kong Lung, Man Huang
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Written by: Chan Koon-Chung, Szeto Cheuk-Hon, Raymond To
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Directed by: Tsui Hark
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MPAA Rating: NR
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Language: Cantonese, with English subtitles
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Running Time: 103
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Date: 06/20/2025
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Tuba or Not Tuba
By Jeffrey M. Anderson
This early film by the legendary Tsui Hark is not a martial arts film like his upcoming breakout hit Peking Opera Blues, but rather a silly, lovable screwball comedy. (It even pays homage to Howard Hawks's Bringing Up Baby.) It's 1937 and the Japanese are on the verge of invading Shanghai. A hopeful songwriter nicknamed Do-Re-Mi (Kenny Bee) quits his job as a clown to join the army. During a shelling by the enemy, he meets a woman, Shu-Shu (Sylvia Chang), under a bridge. It's too dark for them to see each other, and they never exchange names, but something passes between them and they agree to meet there again, after the war.
Things immediately shift to ten years later, where Shu-Shu is a nightclub singer and Do-Re-Mi clumsily plays tuba for a band. The bulk of the film follows two lovers coincidentally living in the same building and nearly meeting up again, but constantly, ignorantly thwarted by the goofy, adorable "Stool" (Sally Yeh). Yeh, perhaps best known for her roles in Peking Opera Blues, and as the blinded singer Jennie in John Woo's The Killer, is a real treasure here, a crush-worthy scatterbrain a bit like an early Meg Ryan. The film was restored for its 40th anniversary and is being released in June of 2025 in American theaters.
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