1905-1979
Chinese/Hong Kong actress Lim Cho-Cho was born Florence Lim in Vancouver, Canada on this day. She relocated to Hong Kong to be with her ailing mother at the age of 12. A bit shocking by today's standards, she would be married 3 years later at the age of 15. After her arrival in Hong Kong, she was enrolled in a girl's school, there she eventually made friends with a mainland born girl by the name of Lai Hang-Kau who had an uncle who was a filmmaker. Turns out that filmmaker was Lai Man-Wai, now known as the "Father of Hong Kong Cinema." Young Florence, then going by the given "Cho-Cho" was introduced the Lai and she soon agreed to marry him as his second wife, as he was already still married to his first wife Yan Shanshan (Yan Xianxian) who was an actress in some of his films. It's pretty clear to see how Lim wound up in films. Oh, and that young girl who introduced her to her uncle would go on to be an actress herself, confusingly using the name Cho-Cho Lai also popularly known as Lai Cheuk-Cheuk; she would have an extremely long career ending in 1980. Lim may have married Lai in 1920, but she did not appear in a film until 1925 at the age of 20; she then debuted opposite her husband billed as Minwei Li in the romance film Yan zhi (Rogue), released in Hong Kong in February of 1925. The film was not directed by her husband however; instead being directed by the only other actor in the film Beihai Li (Lai Pak-hoi)--who was also her brother-in-law. The following year she appeared in the much bigger production that was Yu jie bing qing , directed by Bu Wancang, a director with a very long career in Hong Kong (and later Taiwan after the Revolution), representing the Mandarin speakers in the primarily Cantonese speaking city. She next appeared in the romantic drama Xi xiang ji (Romance of the Western Chamber) co-directed by her husband and Hou Yao, the most influential and innovative of the earliest Chinese filmmakers. She appeared in two more Hou Yao films in the later 1920's, Fuhuode Meigui (1927) also co-directed by her husband, and Mulan congiun (1928). In several of these films, she acted along side Lee Ya-Ching--China's own Amilia Earhart--under her stage name of Li Dandan. As fans of silent cinema are aware, motion pictures with sound did not appear simultaneously in every country. Though China/Hong Kong had a robust film industry by the 1930's, a goodly number of releases were still silent films (and later partial silents). Such was the case with the first two films in which Lim appeared in the new decade. She first had a role in Yi jian me (A Spray of Plum Blossoms) directed by Bu Wancang, released in July of 1931 (it is film that survives, has been restored and is a favorite of silent film festivals). She also appeared in the Singaporean/Indian picture Kamar-Al-Zaman, also a fully silent film released in 1931 and direted by Shah G. Agha (the only title that he is currently credited with, though it's highly likely that he made more films--he was also the screenwriter). Her next two film appearances were partial silents. The first was the 1933 poverty drama Chengshi zhi ye (Night in the City) directed by Mu Fei and was in Mandarin. She also appeared in Mu Fei's next film Tian lun, also a partial silent released in November of 1935, and co-directed with Lo Ming-Yau (Luo Ming-You). Though already half way through the 1930's, Lim's next two films were again fully silent. Guo feng (National Customs) also from 1935 was another Lo Ming-Yau film, this time co-directed by Shilin Zhu, it is another film that is thankfully still with us, restored and screened. Xiao tain shi (Little Angel), again from 1935, was a silent 100 minute drama directed by Wu Yonggang. After this point, all of her other film appearance came in films with full sound. Her last film role came in the 1954 comedy Gai zao tai tai (Better Your Better Half) as the matronly figure (Ling Ping's Mother). The in-between years were extremely difficult for the family. They moved/fled to various locations in China during the Japanese occupation of various places in the country, including an invasion of British Hong Kong. Chinese filmmakers were high on the Japanese most wanted list (and at least one, the above mentioned Hou Yao, had been hunted down and killed in Malaysian Singapore); by the 1940's, Lim herself had become involved in films as a producer, so both her and her husband were in danger. Add to that, her husband had been born in Japan and had made a number of anti-Japanese films. They also had nine children to protect. For a time during the war, they ran a successful photo studio in Guangxi, but this was only after extremely impoverished existences in several other parts of the country. After the war, the family returned to Hong Kong and films. Lai Man-Wai died in 1953, so Lim retired from the business to devote time to her huge family. She lived out the rest of her life in Hong Kong, where she passed away at the age of 74 on the 16th of February of 1979. There is no information about her burial. Two of their children became actors: Lai Hang (aka Li Keng/Henry Lai) who was born in 1928 and appeared in silent films himself in the 1930's, he died by suicide in 1965; and Lai Suen, who was born in 1931 and is 89 years old, she retired from acting in 2007. Cho-Cho's granddaughter is Gigi Lai former Hong Kong television actress and CantoPop singer (though she also released albums in Mandarin). Additionally, the above mentioned actress Cho-Cho Lai, Lim's old school friend, became her niece when Lim married her uncle. She is credited under a number of different variations of her name, with the two most prevalent being Cho-Cho Lam and Lin Chuchu. [Note: I am giving the link to her Wikipedia page because IMDb has her listed as at least three people and even then her filmography is nowhere near complete--plus her birth dates are wrong....it's too confusing to try to navigate. Her list of films on Wikipedia is excellently curated.]
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| Lim on the September 1926 cover of The Young Companion at the age of 21. |
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