Set sometime in the early twentieth century, My Young Auntie tells the story of Jing Dai-Nan (the luminous Kara Hui Ying-Hung), a loyal student who marries her elderly master as a favor to him. Why? Well, for plot purposes, it’s important for Dai-Nan to take control of her master’s assets when he croaks (and he does) and keep them away from the dastardly Yu Wing-Sang (consummate Shaw baddie Johnny Wang Lung-Wei). Now newly widowed, it’s up to Dai-Nan to rightfully bestow her master’s property upon his most deserving, yet slightly meek nephew, Yu Jing-Chuen (Lau Kar-Leung). Thanks to Chinese custom, the fact that she’s the wife of a family elder--hasty as the marriage was--makes her a “senior” in the family hierarchy, a distinction she uses to her full advantage. Naturally, things get a little crazy when Jing-Chuen’s son, Ah Tao, returns home from school. Although she and Ah Tao (who’s rechristened himself “Charlie”) are about the same age, custom dictates that Ah Tao and his father must defer to “their young auntie”. Naturally, plenty of hijinks ensue.

One of the most memorable (and strangest) hijink-filled episodes of the film involves an elaborate masquerade ball/hoedown thrown by Ah Tao and his college buddies. Apparently, Ah Tao plans to use the ball as a chance to get back at Dai-Nan. How? Well, I’m not sure, but it involves Dai-Nan dressing up like Marie Antoinette, Ah Tao donning a Robin Hood costume, and Gordon Liu showing up to the party looking like a foppish French aristocrat. Oh, and some folks dress up as The Three Musketeers. And then suddenly three of the villains show up to the party dressed as Alexandre Dumas’s creations as well. Not surprisingly, a fight breaks out, and almost a decade before Xiong Xin-Xin served as stunt director for The Musketeer, Lau Kar-Leung gives us a taste of how cool Chinese-styled musketeer fencing can truly be. Lau choreographs the sequence in that old school Shaws style of fighting that, when done correctly as is the case here, still holds up today.

Excerpt from Sanjuro, LoveHKFilm.com