Danny Lee is Hsu Chih-yuan, the youngest son of strict patriarch Hsu Hui-tang (Cheng Miu). A sailor, Chih-yuan incurs his father's wrath when he tells the latter of his girlfriend Susan's (Ai Ti) pregnancy. Pressured to leave her by his father, Chih-yuan finally agrees to continue his studies overseas. Eldest brother Chih-wen (Ling Yun) volunteers to raise money but ends up losing the family fortune in the stock market. It starts a roller coaster of tragedies for the family that ends with bitter disillusionment for Chih-yuan. It's a battle between tradition and youthful rebellion that leaves everyone a little poorer off.
The film opens with a duel on a beach between two master swordsman. An elderly master looks on as the two battle. He stops the duel and proclaims one swordsman the winner and awards him the coveted Purple Light Sword making him the new Sword King. He returns home to show his sickly teacher the treasure but they are attacked by the weird minions of evil King Gold who wants to combine the power of the sword with his developing Fire Ball power. The Sword King loses the sword, his master is killed and is forced to join forces with his opponent from the duel to retrieve it. Along the way they are joined by the daughter of the Blind Master and later the Beggar Army.
Tang Bohu is smitten by the stunning beauty of Qiuxiang, the maid of Grand Tutor Hua, during his visit to a monastery in Suzhou. Stalking the maid, Tang's affections are finally reciprocated with three charming smiles. To approach the fair maid, Tang seeks work in the Grand Tutor residence as a study companion, and his talents win Hua's attention. As a frustrated suitor, he turns to his resourceful friend Zhu Zhishan for help.
Wang Lewu is over 35 but never had any successful romance relationships, his friends and relatives tried to introduce single females to him but none worked out in the end. Until one day, his mother introduced a young lady, Li Meijuan to him...
Yan Xintang have seven kids with his wife, all their kids have grown up now and facing different problems on their own romance experiences.
Dream of the Red Chamber, one of the big four of classic Chinese novels, has been adapted for film and television dozens of times over the past decades. Yet this sui generis Great Wall production daringly transposes the setting to modern-day 1950s. The contemporised story revolves nonetheless around the love triangle between Jia Baoyu and his two cousins. Both girls love him but his heart belongs to only one. The ending, however, is remarkably changed to separation of the lovers as a result of war—the war that was surely still haunting the minds of the filmmakers at the time when the film was made. Not only did Great Wall pour money into building extravagant sets just so to recreate down to the smallest detail the grandeur of the legendary Jia mansion, but the film also boasted of its lavish costume designs for the diverse female cast. (From Hong Kong Film Archive)
Flower Street is a place where people from the jungle live, and the street is a place where people from the marketplace gather. Zhaogou and his wife, Bai Lanhua, make a living as singers in the House of Delight and have a daughter, Daping. Daping enrolls in school, and her best friend Lian Bao is also helped by Zhaogou to learn the art, and later moves on to work as an apprentice in a factory. During the war, Zhaoxu's family fled, but his grandmother insisted on staying behind. Zhaogou is separated from his wife and daughter on the road; Daping wanders around with his mother and sells songs, and after a few twists and turns, he and his mother are able to return to Flower Street.
Ma the flying bandit calls it quits after his daughter is born. His wife, a onetime prostitute, can’t stand poverty and turns him in to the authorities before resuming her profession. Years later, when the daughter is set to get married, the unabashed mother blackmails her own flesh and blood, so Ma has to escape from prison to thwart her.
Four sisters, each with their different characters, embark on their separate roads to romance. Elder sister has vast experience of romance; second sister is predisposed to vampiness and wantonness; third sister is righteous and of noble character; fourth sister is just reaching puberty and experiencing the pangs of first love. Being sentimental, flirtatious and amorous, the four sisters form a backdrop conducive to songs and tripping the light fantastic.