King Drummer by Inoue Umetsugu (1967)
15 November 2007I am a big fan of not only Lily Ho Li Li, but also of Inoue Umetsugu and his swinging sixties musicals. I love this ridiculous ideal world with bad ass and suave boys who are also musicians and the beautiful women that love them. And this fun romp with a battle for the best drummer is no exception to the fun, especially with Ho Li Li in it. Another classic Shaw musical (though as with the rest of Inoue’s films the music is not incongruous to the picture and actually fits in to the characters playing).
Ho Li Li plays a rich girl named Huang Li Chen, who lives with her brother David (Pei Shan Chang) a guitar player. Li Chen manages a band that is getting really hot, mainly because of it’s drummer Golden Arms Charlie Chao (Chan Hung Lit) who Li Chen obviously likes, but who has gotten a big head, and wants more, like the beautiful Julie (Angela Yu Chien) who is the girlfriend record producer Chiang Ta Cheng (Ma Ying). A music critic named Li Yuen Ming (Wei Ping Ao) wants Li Chen, so she wants to get Charlie away from her, and conspires to get him signed with the record Producer, this ruining the band. Luckily their friend, the music writer Sun Yi CHuan (Yang Fan) has showed them his bad tempered former sailor brother Sun Chih Chiang (Ling Yun) who is able to take over and prove to be a pretty good drummer. The sleazy record reviewer then makes a deal with Sun that he will help him destroy Charlie if Sun will help Li court Li Chen.
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…
Charlie challenges Sun, now called Thunder to a kind drummer contest on TV, but then the record producer tries to beat up Sun the night before he hurts his hand, but manages to hold his own by playing with one hand and singing, and with the help of Li wins the contest. He tries to get his mother (Kao Pao Shu) to be happy, but she blames him for his father leaving, and hates that he supported his brother through school.
Sun and Li Chen finally fall in love, but things are short lived, because Yi Chuan gets a chance to conduct a symphony concert of his music, but Li will ruin it unless Sun gives up on Li Chen, so he breaks up with her, and moves out, just like Charlie did, and she is crushed.
So is Sun, who gets really drunk, and gets picked up by Julie, but actually goes home and sleeps and tells her the whole story, and how much he loves Li Chen, but the record producer finds out and they beat the hell out of Sun and destroy his right hand. He is hospitalized, but leaves, so he doesn’t come to his brother’s concert, but they get the word out, and find out where he is, and his mother goes, and finally shows she loves her son, and Li Chen gets her man, since he can since even if he can’t play the drums anymore.
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A fun and silly romp, and Ho Li Li is oh so lovely.
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