Another review contribution by Shirlock. Many Thanks! to Shirlock.
Outspoken orphan Du Xiao Meng (Brigitte Lin) returns a lost leather wallet to the debonair Dai Ya Lun (Chin Han) and all should be well if not for the latter's mistake of getting engaged to his mentor's utterly spoilt daughter Shi Mei Ni. To complicate matters, Xiao Meng works as a helper to 19-year old wheelchair-bound Tang Yong Ping. Never giving in to his wicked temper flairs and incessant tantrums, Xiao Meng wins Yong Ping over with her firm-handedness and patience. She even gives him the encouragement to step out of his wheelchair and into the world. In time, they become good friends.
Dai Ya Lun tries to break off his engagement to Shi Mei Ni after he discovers he's fallen in love with Du Xiao Meng but Mei Ni attempts suicide. At the wedding, Xiao Meng recognises Mei Ni's father. He is, in fact, the same man who left Xiao Meng and her mother. He comes to ask for Xiao Meng's forgiveness the next day but of course he doesn't get any. Shi Mei Ni divorces Dai Ya Lun after she forces him to sign away his company's high position and assets. Glad to have gotten rid of her, Dai Ya Lun is only too pleased to sign the papers.
Tang Yong Ping asks Xiao Meng to bring him to a place famous for the morning fogs after Xiao Meng describes how beautiful the bamboo forests there are, and how one can catch the mists in the palm of one's hand. Yong Ping falls deathly ill there and in his last breath asks Xiao Meng to kiss him. She bends down to kiss his forehead and he dies in her last embrace.
Dai Ya Lun renews his relationship with Xiao Meng and asks her to forgive her father. By this time, Xiao Meng is working in a large company and has grown into a beautiful woman. Filled with pity at her father's remorse, she embraces him.
At a restaurant, they come across Shi Mei Ni, who has fallen on hard times. The man she left Dai Ya Lun for had a change of heart. She discovers she cannot support herself and regrets treating her husband and father that way. But of course, it's too late to win Dai Ya Lun back. In the end, Dai Ya Lun asks Xiao Meng to marry him.
The Taiwanese movies of the 70s are distinctive in their melodramatic abundance in treating the rich and haughty with disdain while the poor and the struggling usually end up sweeping the stakes. But one cannot help it when the poor but winsome protagonist is played by Brigitte Lin! It is not difficult to see how well Brigitte and Chin Han must get along in real life because their onscreen magic is palpable. Morning Fog is a simple story, with beautiful actors and tragic characters. This movie differentiates passion from compassion, and possibly how fragile and ethereal love is--like the morning fog which dissipates when the warmth of the sun sets in.
Note: The VCD cover is a most ridiculous attempt to cheat the buyer to purchase it for its contents sake. A cut and paste job gone awry, all the movie stills on the back (except one) are from other Lin Ching-Hsia movies and the front depicts Brigitte with Charlie Chin, who is NO WHERE in Morning Fog.
Click for the Morning Fog VCD covers.picts
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Cast : Brigitte Lin Ching Hsia, Chin Han
Director : Lin Wen-Jing
Producer : Lee Sui-Chiang
Spoken : Mandarin
Subtitles : None
Film : Taiwanese
Distributor : Ocean Shores Video Limited
