Peggy Su!

Directed by Frances-Anne Solomon

United Kingdom, 1997 (fiction, 94 minutes, colour, English)

Film Description:
"Liverpool 1962: 19-year-old Peggy arrives from Hong Kong to work in the Chinese laundry run by her brother Jack. When her widowed father writes that he has chosen a husband for her, Peggy is determined to marry for love and sets out on a race against time to find her ideal man."
-- British Film Institute (source)

Film Description:
"This romantic comedy, set in Liverpool in 1962, is about the Chinese community there and 19-year-old Peggy who lives above a family laundry business with her brother and his wife. It centers on Peggy played by Pamela Oei, her attempts to find a husband and also her coping with the changing times in the early 1960s."
-- francesannesolomon.com (source)

Film Credits (partial):
Written by:	Kevin Wong
Produced by:	Colin Rogers, Poonam Sharma, George Faber, Roger Shannon, Yvonne Isimeme Ibazebo
Principal Cast:	Jonathan Arun, Ifec Mah, Daphne Cheung, Alphonsia Emmanuel, Glen Goei, Burt Kwouk, Pamela Oei, Charles T.H. Ong, Adrian Pang, Vincenzo Pellegrino, Stuart Richma, Sukie Smith, Daniel York, Barbara Yu Ling
Cinematography:	Shelley Hirst
Film Editing:	Greg Miller
Music:	Peter Spencer
Production Company:	BBC Films

(sources)

Quotes about Peggy Su!

"Although heart-warming at points, the film [Peggy Su!] is largely played as a farce, reinforced by the vibrant 1960s frocks, hairstyles, and colourful sets. Peggy Su (played by Pamela Oei) is the most rounded of the characters while her three suitors are recognizable comic types: her father's choice of suitor is gawky cousin Gilbert (Adrian Pang) with his black-rimmed glasses and well-greased hair; his antithesis is smooth-talking David (Glen Goei), the restaurateur who sneers at her for being 'too Chinese'; the most promising of the three is deliveryman Terry (Vince Pellegrino), but the only problem is, he is not Chinese."
-- Felicia Chan, Andy Willis (source)

"A tale set in a Chinese laundromat, a girl in pig-tails, and a noisy Cantonese family with seemingly Chinese habits—Peggy Su! appears to contain many of the stereotypes Westerners have of the Chinese. But London-based Singaporean Ivan Heng, its assistant director, defended it at a press conference. He said the movie is unlike others which treat Chinese stereotypes superficially. [...] Heng said the characters in Peggy Su! are well-drawn. [...] 'The film says, We are Chinese, and proud of everything about us, good or bad. We are portraying it with humanity. We must also realise this is a first for Britain. It shows the Chinese as part of the society there, in 1962. The Chinese may be leading a different life there now. But the laundromat and hard-working Chinese are important aspects of British society then.'"
-- Straits Times (source)

Bibliography for Peggy Su!

Articles from Newspapers, Magazines, or News Websites

Rees, Jasper. "Television drama: In the end, Peggy Su gets married." Review of Peggy Su!. Independent on Sunday, August 23, 1998.
Straits Times. "Peggy Su! warts and all." The Straits Times (Singapore), July 15, 1997.

Web Sites about Peggy Su!

"IMDb: Peggy Su!" Internet Movie Database, Inc. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119876/reference.