director: Esther Eng
year: 1948
country: USA
alternative titles: Too Late for Sunshine

A Cantonese-language feature portraying the relationship between a young Chinese woman and a Chinese-American man - said to be based on Hollywood's own "Back Street", made in 1931 and again in 1942. Best check the plots of these films on IMDB to perhaps approximate the story outline of Eng's version.

Starring Siu Fei-fei aka Fe Fe Lee, Liu Chi-wai, Suet Ying-hong, Sek Yin-jee, Lee Chor-fun, Shum Lit-fu and newcomers Wong Chuk-fun and Lui Ming.

Source notes
Frank Bren, 23.02.2010

Esther Eng (1914-1970) was one of Chinese cinema's greatest female directors - oddly, an American too. This is one of her ten lost films (nine of them as director). For a long time, I've been developing a project on Esther Eng's life and would love to hear of anything new on her films via frankmondial@yahoo.com . See also www.estherengstory.com on this only known American woman directing commercial movies between the Hollywood careers of Dorothy Arzner and Ida Lupino. Also a famous New York restaurateur, hers is one of the strangest disappearing acts in film history. Central/South America offers reasonable hope for rediscovering movies that she distributed there (maybe her own too) in the 1940s, including to Havana, Cuba. Detailed portraits of her appear in "China Daily" (HK English edition) of 23/24 January 2010 and "Women of China" (Beijing, June 2006, English edition). See http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/hkedition/2010-01/23/content_9365379.htm