The Human Goddess (original title
仙女下凡,
Sin Lui Ha Fan) is a 1972 Hong Kong musical comedy fantasy directed by Ho Heng Hua and produced by the
Shaw Brothers, the studio most famous for Wuxia and Martial Arts films throughout the 1970s and 80s, making this entry in their oeuvre very much
Playing Against Type.
The film stars Li Ching as the Seventh Sister, one of many girls in a family of celestial beings who look down on the mortal world from high above in their Heavenly Palace. As the sisters are planning their mother’s birthday Seventh Sister decides she wants to experience the wonders of the mortal world, specifically the bustling neon-lit city of Hong Kong. Once there she encounters Zili, a hard-working man struggling to keep an orphanage from being sold by debtors to a wealthy tycoon, rendering its many children homeless. Seventh Sister soon falls for Zili and resolves to help him and the children, despite his skepticism towards her divine origins.
Tropes found in this work include:
- All Chinese People Know Kung-Fu: One of Seventh Sister's powers is to give people instant martial arts skills capable of fending off thugs in a confrontation.
- Bittersweet Ending: Although the orphanage is saved, Seventh Sister must return to Heaven, forcing her to break up with Zili, who has now fallen for her.
- Children Are Innocent: The children at the orphanage are the most innocent mortal characters in the film.
- Fluffy Cloud Heaven: The Celestial Plane is represented as this with Seventh Sister's family able to look down upon the mortal world from one end of their palace.
- Friend to All Children: Seventh Sister is this to the children at the orphanage.
- Hey, Let's Put on a Show: When Seventh Sister's sisters come down to find her and bring her back for their mother's birthday she convinces then to help her raise the money to save the orphanage by putting on a musical.
- The Ingenue: Seventh Sister is lovehorn, but naive and innocent about the mortal world.
- Mistaken for Prostitute: Happens when Seventh Sister tries to tell Zili she's from the Heavenly Palace, which he sees is the name of a local brothel.
- Our Angels Are Different: Granted, the Mandarian Chinese linguistic term can differ between a Western concept of angels and actual (though minor) goddesses.
- The Pollyanna: Seventh Sister's optimism and enthusiasm never relent throughout her time on earth.
- Saving the Orphanage: The plot once Seventh Sister lands on earth.
- Vice City: How the contemporary Hong Kong of the 1970s is suggested to be in contrast to Zili and Uncle Bull's orphanage and Seventh Sister's idealized romantic longings, especially its nightlife.
- Wrongfully Committed: Happens to Zili when Uncle Bull starts to think the stress as made him snap out of his senses.
