The House of 72 Tenants

The House of 72 Tenants (七十二家房客) is a 1973 Hong Kong film directed by Chor Yuen. It is a remake of a 1963 Chinese film of the same name. It was the top box office film of 1973 in Hong Kong, surpassing Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon.[1]

The House of 72 Tenants
Original Hong Kong Poster
Chinese七十二家房客
MandarinQī Shǐ Èr Jiā Fáng Ké
CantoneseCat1 Sap6 Ji6 Gaa1 Fong4 Haak3
Directed byChor Yuen
Produced byRun Run Shaw
Andrew Au
Written byChor Yuen
StarringElliot Ngok
Adam Cheng
Woo Gam
Ching Li
Lydia Shum
Ivan Ho
Music byFrankie Chan
CinematographyWong Chit
Edited byChiang Hsing Lung
Production
company
Distributed byShaw Brothers Studio
Release date
  • 22 September 1973 (1973-09-22)
Running time
98 minutes
CountryHong Kong
LanguageCantonese
Box officeHK$ 5,626,675.20

The 72 inhabitants of a dilapidated tenement live under the thumb of a heartless landlady and her buffoonish husband. The arrival of a defiant new tenant, the cobbler Fat Chai, sets their downfall in motion. The residents pool their resources to prevent evictions, deflect targeted harassment by a corrupt policeman, rescue the landlords' adopted daughter from a life of torment, and ultimately prevent their home from being sold and turned into a brothel.

Cast

Special notes

The House of 72 Tenants can be considered to have started a new era for Hong Kong film industry. Before the release of this movie, most high-class movies filmed in the then British colony were shot and recorded in Mandarin, while the less respected ones would be shot and recorded in Cantonese. However, since the debut of the movie, which was filmed in Cantonese, and the popularity it achieved, subsequent major Hong Kong films switched their language from Mandarin to Cantonese.

Parodies

Parodies of this movie are found in many of Hong Kong's films and Television shows.

In movies:

In TV shows:

See also

References
  1. Gary G. Xu, Sinascape: Contemporary Chinese Cinema (Rowman & Littlefield, 2007), 91
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