Princess Hibiscus

Sung Dynasty scholar Chen Chulin loves nature, especially the flowers he grows at his country home. The spirit of his favourite flower, Princess Hibiscus, couldn't help falling in love with such a caring man, momentarily transforming herself into a beautiful girl so as to dance with him. The scholar, unsure if he was dreaming, writes a love poem with a promise of marriage, hanging it on the hibiscus tree. But when the Queen of Flowers discovers the Princess's plans to marry a mortal, she is banished to the Icy Mountain and the spirit of the Banana Tree promised her hand in marriage. Unable to stand the bitter cold, Hibiscus returns to flower form and only by chance is discovered by the scholar who hangs his coat over the tree to revive the drooping flower. Enraged with jealousy, the spirit of the Banana Tree takes direct action to eliminate his love rival... Nine years after Tan Xinfeng's long lost PRINCE OF THE BIG TREE (1948), Great Wall Film Production released Hong Kong's second puppet animation, PRINCESS HIBISCUS. Shot on a theatre stage on 35mm in full-colour, director Huang Yu had to manage a 100-strong troupe of elderly puppeteers with no understanding of the filming process. Huang had been chosen for his experience directing elaborate musicals, yet HIBISCUS still proved an immense challenge. The troupe had to re-enact each scene many times as the camera moved in for close-ups and inserts, singing songs from memory. Puppet theatre was popular in Guangdong province, and like PRINCE OF THE BIG TREE before it, a popular regional folktale formed the basis of the story. The only surviving print of HIBISCUS was discovered in San Francisco Chinatown in 1995 and has since been restored by the Hong Kong Film Archive.