Original film title in Chinese: 空中小姐
English film title: Air Hostess

Directed by Evan Yang 易文
Written by Evan Yang 易文
Language: Mandarin
Starring: Grace Chang 戈兰 , Roy Chiao Hung 乔宏, Julie Yeh Fung 叶枫
Produced by Motion Picture & General Investment Co. Ltd. (MP&GI) 国际电影懋业有限公司

Film Locations:
Downtown Singapore (aerial views)
Paya Lebar Airport
Anderson Bridge & vicinity, Supreme Court, Padang
Cathay Building, Sultan Mosque
Nanyang University 南洋大学 (or ‘Nantah’)
Van Kleef Aquarium
Queen Elizabeth Walk (Esplanade Park)
Ocean Park Hotel
Night entertainment venues

 

Despite reservations and protests from her mother and chauvinistic boyfriend, free-wheeling Lin Ke-ping (Grace Chang) signs up for training to become an air stewardess (or “air hostess”, a term that was used when the profession was still a novelty then). She turns out to be the best trainee and soon begins to jet about the world, working on flights between Hong Kong, Singapore, Taipei and Bangkok.

Lin Ke-ping’s work schedule becomes an avenue, or excuse if you like, to insert various touristy scenes of the places where she ends up in – cinema escapism at its best. A film tour of downtown Singapore ensues, taking in Supreme Court, Anderson Bridge, Cathay Building and Sultan Mosque; this was a film sequence that was borrowed from a 1957 documentary on Singapore titled “Singapore: The Lion City”, produced by the Malayan Film Unit.

In the meantime, Lin Ke-ping also begins to fall in love with her colleague Lei Da-ying, a strait-laced pilot. Off duty in Singapore, the pair would go on dates to some of the most talked about places of that era: the then-almost-completed Nanyang University campus in Jurong (now the Nanyang Technological University); the Van Kleef Aquarium at the foot of Fort Canning Hill (demolished in 1998); and Queen Elizabeth Walk where a colleague of theirs watches them from a distance with envy (or jealousy), and struts back to the Ocean Park Hotel (where the airline employees are put up).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Further Reading:
1. ‘Grace Chang to make new film in Singapore‘. The Straits Times. 22 September 1957, p. 8.
2. ‘陆运涛昨由印返星宴空中小姐外景队’. 南洋商报 (Nanyang Siang Pau). 8 October 1957, p. 7.
3. ‘南洋大学校舍落成今日举行庆祝大典’. 星洲日报 (Sin Chew Jit Poh). 30 March 1958, p. 5.
4. Paya Lebar Airport. Singapore Infopedia. National Library Board, 2004.
5. Nanyang University. Singapore Infopedia. National Library Board, 2014.
6. Van Kleef Aquarium. Singapore Infopedia. National Library Board, 2013.
7. The Esplanade. Singapore Infopedia. National Library Board, 2004.

Film Images:
© 1959 MP&GI, Cathay Organisation
© 2006 Hoker Records

Photographs:
© 2013, 2014 Toh Hun Ping