Song at Midnight (Chinese: 夜半歌聲 Ye ban ge
sheng1937）
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Song_at_Midnight
A traveling performance troupe stays in an old theater building where the male lead, Sun, receives help from a 'ghost' during his rehearsals. The ghost later reveals himself to Sun as a well-known revolutionary who, in order to avoid political persecution, changed his name to Song and took up acting as a career. Ten years earlier, he fell in love with the town's beauty, Miss Li, thus making a local thug who also took an interest in Li extremely jealous. The thug deformed Song's face. Not wanting to be seen in public with such a grizzly appearance, Song pretended to be dead and asked his loyal servant to arrange a fake funeral. Upon hearing this news, Li lost her sanity. Song feels guilty about what happened to Li and keeps her company by singing for her in the middle of the night. Hence, the theater building is believed to be haunted.
After telling his story, Song begs Sun to act like him and visit Li, hoping this may help Li recover. Meanwhile, Song helps Sun's troupe stage a new show. The local thug who had earlier victimized Song is now interested in Ludie, the troupe's female lead and Sun's lover. In a final showdown, Ludie is shot while trying to protect Sun. Song comes out of hiding and kills the thug. But the crowd mistakenly perceives Song to be the evil doer and chase after him. The police also learn of his past revolutionary activities and try to arrest him. Surrounded by his pursuers, Song commits suicide by jumping into the river.
Today the film is well regarded, and was named as one of the best 100 Chinese films by both the in Hong Kong Film Awards in 2005, and by Asia Weekly in 1999.
