The Singing Escort
The third, and last, entry in The Year Of Jimmy Lin Chong. While this was not his final film role, I believe it was his final starring role. And definitely the last starring role he had with Shaw Brothers.
Way back in 2005 when I saw The Singing Thief (Jimmy Lin Chong’s first Shaw Brothers film) I wondered why the studio invested so much time trying to make the Taiwanese pop singer a movie star.
What I didn’t know then is that Jimmy Lin Chong already was a bit of a movie star by the time the studio hired him for this trio of films. Growing up in Taiwan he’d acted in both Taiwanese and Hong Kong films as a young adult. But a stay in Japan (arranged by his father, who didn’t want him to become an actor) led to Lin Chong working in Japanese stage, film and television productions, mostly in musicals.
His growing fame in Japan and Taiwan led to more work in Hong Kong, and that work attracted the attention of Shaw Brothers who signed the singing musical star to a short-term deal…and also decided to not use his singing voice in his own movies. Instead dubbing him with a local talent.
I’m guessing this didn’t sit well with the singer. That, along with a bit of a scandal surrounding his marriage (his wife had recently been married to his brother-in-law), led to Jimmy Lin Chong leaving Hong Kong and cutting ties with the studio. (the preceding 3 paragraphs are all thanks to Jimmy Lin Chong’s wikipedia page)
Had the relationship not soured would we have more Jimmy Lin Chong movies with Shaw Brothers? It’s hard to say. But the 35-years-old Jimmy Lin Chong was rapidly running out of time to play the sorts of roles Shaw’s had him play in 1969. And based on the movies we do have I don’t think he had a lot of range to play different types of roles.
But if any of his films were going to work it was going to be this one. It has a lot of things going for it. Directed by Umetsugu Inoue with his usual attention to color, style, and constantly shifting outfits. Shot on location in Japan, home to Umetsugu and second home to Jimmy Lin Chong. Featuring five Shaw Brothers starlets to constantly throw themselves at the star and wear the ever elaborate costumes. I think the studio did everything they could to set the singer up for success here.
And it still doesn’t really work. Umetsugu brings some fun style (love those increasingly weird wipe effects!), and the film certainly doesn’t stint on the musical numbers (I counted twelve). But the comedy and plot are extremely thin, and it felt like half the movie was spent with four women yelling at Jimmy Lin Chong while trying to rip off his clothes. Meanwhile the star mostly just acts like a hapless, ineffectual doof making me wonder why any of these women have any interest in him at all.
I will give the movie credit for one sequence where a quartet of band members fantasize about ways to determine if an actress has a mole on her boob (don’t ask why, it’s not worth the explanation). In each of these fantasies their creepy actions are interrupted by the cops and the sleazy band members are hauled off to jail. Glad things didn’t go in The Mating Game type of direction.
Ian Whitney
Published: 2025-09-30