Riots in Outer Space – 1959

Riots in Outer Space is a 1959 Mandarin language film that might just be the first Chinese science fiction film. Thanks to the Historical dictionary of Hong Kong Cinema that mentioned Riots in Outer Space in like five entries I decided to look up the film. (that book also gave me a bunch of background biographies that will be used in the upcoming Black Rose films reviews and a few other older Hong Kong movies)

HKMDB link
HKFA link
Chinese HKFA link

Director: Wang Tianlin (aka Wong Tin-lam).
Screenwriter: Wang Tianlin (aka Wong Tin-lam)
Cast:
Kitty Ting Hao (as Lin Hsiao-chu)
Chiang Kwang Chao (aka Chiang Kuang Chao) (as Wang Ting-hsi)
Liu En-chia (as Chang San-yuan)
Li Ying (as boss)
Chen Hao (aka Chan Ho)
Lau Yan-kit.

The Plot:

Chang San-yuan and Wang Ting-hsi work in a firecracker factory and have a craze for making rockets. During one such experiment, an explosion occurs and the two get injured. While staying in the hospital, the duo dream that they wander in the outer space and encounter aliens on Venus. Next, they venture to Mars and declare their love to a beautiful damsel who looks exactly like Chu, the nurse of the hospital. The duo are again under attack… When discharged, they are invited to attend an official firecracker testing. Another explosion occurs, injuring the duo who are re-admitted to the hospital.

HKFA claims to only have handbills and programs for the feature, so I do not know if it exists. In fact, it is hard to find any information on it. The one thing I did find was some photos from INTERNATIONAL SCREEN Chinese Movie Mag DEC 1958 # 38 that was on eBay:
riotsinouterspace01
You can see the style of the film there. Check out the space babe! I shall add it to the list of dozens and dozens of films I am keeping an eye out for.

Runs this joint!

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