The Kingdom and the Beauty (1959)

This is a musical about a young emperor who is lured via stories told to a place called Kiang-Nan by his royal tutor. The empress mother has the tutor go to Kiang-Nan to bring him back. While in Kiang-Nan, the emperor lays eyes on the beautiful Li Feng, played by Linda Lin Dai. She is a country maid, but he is, no surprise, beguiled by her. He searches for her and finds her. Even though there are class differences, the question is whether they could be in love and be happy ever after. The cinematography is good, the colors are vivid. The real key to what makes a film like this worthwhile is the lead female character, whether she can carry the film. Linda Lin Dai more then does that. She is just about at her best here, she makes it easy to focus on her. She gets to sing and is just so beguiling throughout the film. This film won Best Picture at the Asian Film Festival for that year, which is no surprise, as its a very good film. Watch it mostly for the beautiful Linda Lin Dai, just to see what a talent she was.