Her life is completely changed when a man she had an unusual sexual encounter with reemerges, followed by the Japanese invasion. One of the last films made before the Cultural Revolution, Two Stage Sisters follows the lives of two female opera performers, Chunhua (Xie Fang) and Yuehong (Cao Yindi), from 1935 to 1950 as they leave a small countryside folk opera troupe and join a theater company in Shanghai.
Change ), You are commenting using your Google account. With XIE Fang 谢芳, CAO Yindi 曹银娣. Yonggang Nu, The Goddess/Shen Nu 1934 RUAN LING-YU(26 April 1910, Shanghai—8 March 1935, suicide). 1935. While silent film acting tended towards the histrionic. Made a decade after the Cultural Revolution, the film charts the political trajectory of a nation through the experiences of small town individuals. Actress Ruan Lingyu, who ironically took her own life soon after this film’s release, gives a powerful and courageous performance portraying a woman who struggles against sexual oppression and economic deprivation. Check out New Women (1935), also featuring actress Ruan Lingyu, and Center Stage (1992), a biopic of Ruan Lingyu. It stars Ruan Lingyu in one of her final roles, and was directed by Wu Yonggang. Chris Berry, page 132). [15] Through the use of intertitles, lighting and distinctive close up shots of the protagonist’s face, Cinematographer Hong Weilie humanizes the Goddess, creating a strong emotional connection between her character and the audience. The importance of the theatre is clearer in this film than in the Two Sisters, as the whole story is centered around this page of Chinese history. 2008. Up until the Imperial Japanese Army invaded the city in 1937, Shanghai was the thriving, cosmopolitan cultural heart of China. The thug returns the child but she realizes that she has no choice but to submit to him. The Goddess (神女, Shénnǚ) is a 1934 Chinese silent film.The unnamed protagonist is a young woman in Shanghai who is prostituting herself to provide for her infant son. In her short life she had starred in more than … The movie has a symbolic title as it is metaphoric, yet at the same time it depicts the fates of thousands of women of the epoch that were forced to lead their lives working the streets. It is evident because of the specific camera work during the on-stage moments in the movie. The Goddess will be added to our list of Great Silent Films, part of our larger collection, 1,150 Free Movies Online: Great Classics, Indies, Noir, Westerns, etc.. 101 Free Silent Films: The Great Classics, A Page of Madness: The Lost, Avant Garde Masterpiece from the Early Days of Japanese Cinema (1926), 65 Free Charlie Chaplin Films Free Online. 1964. He is conveying the message that those lives are not intertwined and that there is a disconnect between the outside world and the life she leads with her child at home—that she has been forced to submit to prostitution to support herself and her child. The first Chinese film was made in Shanghai in 1905 and, for the next couple of decades, costumed retellings of traditional tales … You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. The word “goddess” is meaningful in that it represents the dual identities of the main character. All films presented with English subtitles. One night, fleeing from a police night patrol, she runs in to the room of a thug (Zhang Zhizhi) who forces her to stay the night with him for him in exchange for hiding her from the police. The movie also stresses the value of the most important human traits, such as pride, dignity, and honesty. It is notable that during that time, the troupes had to include only men or only women, as both of them could not take part in the performance on one stage at the same time.
The main characters of the story are two ordinary boys who have a long story of relationship — relationship that lasted almost fifty years of their life. Unfortunately for her the apartment she hides in is inhabited by a thuggish lout of a man who runs a gambling den. Hibiscus Town 芙蓉镇 [5], Today, Goddess is one of the best-known films of China's cinematic golden age, and has been named as one of China's top 100 films by the Hong Kong Film Awards in 2005. Exclusivethesis.com 2009-2020, Free revision within 48 hours upon request, Chinese Films: Goddess, Two Sisters, Farewell My Concubine, Two Film Reviews: Double Indemnity, The Sea Inside, Lisa Steele: Birthday Suit with Scars and Defects, Scene Setting: Battleship Potemkin, Broke Back Mountain, Individual Freedom and Women Social Protest as a Leitmotif of Three Generations of Chinese Cinema, Film Analysis on Zoot Suit Riots and Salt of the Earth. The socialist tendencies developed during that time with the same fast pace, and the movie has managed to depict the flow of events through the plot development. The representation of the history in this film is more vivid than in the other two movies, where the dubious actions of the government were only hinted at in certain moments. One reason viewers are able to feel the intensity behind Ling-Yu’s expressions and empathize with the message being delivered has a lot to do with the director’s use of close-ups. An analysis of three movies reveals the influence of various historical periods on the life of society, on human relationships, and on the development and importance of cultural life for people. Pabst – a “fallen woman” weepie where the protagonist suffers for the sins of hypocritical society. Now a prostitute, Ling Ling has not forgotten her roots and provides for those who are even less fortunate. A directorial and acting debut for Zhang Yimou and Gong Li, respectively, the film catapulted both to international stardom and launched a series of collaborations between the two. However, the nihilistic politics of Mao government lead to the period of almost ten years of destruction, causing significant changes of the traditions of the opera theatre in the country. FU Jie 傅杰, PAN Wenzhan 潘文展. Close-ups like these show the filmmaker’s efforts at trying to emphasize the domestic, maternal side of the character and marginalize her street life and acts of prostitution. The message of the fallen state of society, however, is best depicted by the disturbing shot of Ling-Yu’s character and her baby on the floor between the grimy gambler’s legs. 35mm.