The World of Suzie Wong (1960) on Netflix
American architect Robert Lomax spends a year in Hong Kong trying to paint, and hires Suzie Wong, the most popular girl in a Wan Chai bar, to pose for him.
- Netflix2.6/5
- IMDb6.9/103,098 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes33%
Trailer
Plot summary
Robert Lomax, an American architect, comes to Hong Kong for a year hoping to earn his living as a painter. Aboard the ferry he meets Mi-Ling, a well-dressed young woman who says her father is rich, and they part at the dock. Looking for cheap rooms in Wan Chai, he sees her leaving the Nam Kok Hotel, where the owner knows no one by that name. In the bar next door she appears in a red cheongsam as Suzie Wong, the house's favorite. Robert hires her to pose for him, and Suzie falls in love with him; he keeps her as his model but not his lover. Kay O'Neill, the banker's daughter who helps her father, is drawn to Robert.
Cast
- Lier Hwangas Wednesday Lu
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The World of Suzie Wong (1960)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Executive producer Ray Stark replaced France Nuyen with Nancy Kwan on The World of Suzie Wong after Nuyen began overeating and could no longer fit into her character's body-hugging silk cheongsams, choosing not to halt production while she lost weight; Stark had earlier auditioned Kwan but judged her too inexperienced for the lead.
- Ray Stark also fired the director Negulesco, replacing him with Richard Quine, and everyone who had worked on the completed Hong Kong scenes was made to return and reshoot them with Nancy Kwan; unpublished publicity featuring France Nuyen, including an Esquire article and photo layout, had to be redone.
- In 2013 the Japanese American Citizens League held The World of Suzie Wong up alongside Madame Butterfly as proof of a culture that still stereotypes Asian women as exotic and subservient, when it criticized Katy Perry's geisha-styled performance at the American Music Awards.
