Shanghai Senses: Sights
Shanghai Cinema
By Stephen Horowitz
Although the first Chinese films were shot in Beijing just over 100 years ago (recordings of Opera performances), the center for China’s film production quickly settled further south in Shanghai. By the 1920’s there was a thriving local film industry competing with the popular Hollywood imports. All genres were represented: comedies, dramas, romances, gangster and horror movies, Chinese operas and, of course, wuxia pian, forerunner of kung-fu films.
Here is a brief and casual introduction to some notable highlights of Shanghai cinema: Silent films & Ruan Lingyu, Street Angel, Two Stage Sisters, Temptress Moon, and Shanghai Triad.
Silent films & Ruan Lingyu
In the early 1930s, a socially conscious cinema began to emerge, dealing with contemporary problems often in urban settings. In Little Toys and The Goddess, we have two examples of this type, both starring the great silent film actress Ruan Lingyu. Ruan, often thought of as China’s Greta Garbo (in their industry preeminence and popularity, not style), had a brilliant if tragically shortened career playing woman suffering under the inherent inequalities of Chinese society. Her characters struggle to survive against overwhelming odds—in Little Toys she’s a rural toymaker widowed by warlordism and factional strife, forced from the countryside to do business in Shanghai. In The Goddess (considered her greatest role) Ruan’s a Shanghai streetwalker trying to raise her infant son in “normal” fashion, under circumstances that simply won’t allow for that.
Both films showcase the theme most associated w/Shanghai—as an urban center of seduction that corrupts the innocent forced to migrate there by societal conditions beyond their control. That is, the same city that saw the birth of the Chinese Communist Party also represents that part of China most tainted by Western decadence and corruption. Of course, filmmakers reveled in being able to depict this debauchery, however “evil”, to their expectant audience.
Ruan herself committed suicide at 24 in 1935, her private life (which included a much-publicized “love triangle” w/the ne’er-do-well son of a high-society Shanghai family and a rich businessman) daily fodder for the tabloid press. Her death attracted immense attention. Newspapers and magazines rushed out special supplements and there were 200,000 mourners at her funeral procession. Even China’s leading social critic and writer Lu Xun based an essay using the headline of her suicide note as subject: “Gossip Is a Fearful Thing.”
There are snippets of at least two other Ruan films on Youtube: “Love and Duty” and “Peach Girl”. Watching these or any extended scene from the two films listed above showcase the extraordinary screen presence and emotive quality that Ruan had. For a film version of her life (including actual clips from her films) see “Center Stage” directed by Stanley Kwan with Maggie Cheung as Ruan.
Excerpt from Little Toys
Excerpt from The Goddess
Street Angel
Only a short clip from the 1937 film itself, this is a musical interlude that launched the career of 18-yr-old Zhou Xuan, another very popular film actress and singer plagued by mental illness and a premature death. She is seen performing “Four Seasons”.
Two Stage Sisters
The rise of two women from ragtag itinerant players to Shaoxing Opera stars in 1940’s Shanghai -- and the separate paths they take there before being reunited in the end -- is told against the backdrop of a turbulent fifteen year period (1935-50) in Chinese history. The film displays a remarkably mature visual style. Meticulous period detail is all the more noteworthy since this was one of the last productions in the Shanghai studios before the Cultural Revolution brought everything to a halt.
A leading figure in Chinese cinema, dir. Xie Jin created films known for their strong women. His career started in 1948 and first flowered in the 50-60’s w/”The Red Detachment of Women” and this film. Unfortunately, released on the eve of the Cultural Revolution, Xie and the film were heavily criticized for portraying Yuehong, the “bad” sister, w/some nuance, rather than a simple one-dimensional “negative” type. After screening in 1964, “Sisters”, branded a “poisonous weed”, was not shown publicly again for 15 years.
From today’s perspective, the film’s political message seems overt enough, even if the developing sisterhood of the two main characters covertly allows for a reading, given the gender-bending world germane to Chinese Opera performance, of more than “just friends.”
Temptress Moon
Acclaimed Fifth Generation (Beijing Film Academy class of 1982 that redefined the visual, stylistic and narrative features of Chinese cinema) director Chen Kaige followed up his international hit “Farewell My Concubine” three years later with this set-in-colonial-Shanghai blockbuster. Even with Gong Li and Leslie Cheung, the same stars from “Concubine”, this film was a critical and financial disappointment. Chen himself admitted, that as a native of Beijing, “I still don’t understand Shanghai—I was very excited to have the opportunity to depict the splendor and glory of old Shanghai, but it is all very superficial.” See for yourself if you agree.
Excerpt from Temptress Moon
Shanghai Triad
The other great figure from the Fifth Generation, dir Zhang Yimou more recently added to his renown for his spectacular staging of the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics. His early films showcased the talent and beauty of his favored leading lady (& off-screen partner), Gong Li, culminating in Shanghai Triad, their final film together before a much-publicized break-up. A vivid reimagining of the decadent world and underworld of 1930’s Shanghai gangsters, this is a beautifully shot (nominated for a Best Cinematography Academy Award) period piece.
Excerpt from Shanghai Triad
Shanghai Triad trailer
Stephen Horowitz coordinated the first N. American retrospective of Chinese cinema in San Francisco in 1981. His past includes cataloguing and curating Chinese films and various production credits, including a stint on the streets of Shanghai working crew on location for "Empire of the Sun" in 1987. His treasured possessions include autographed photos of screen sirens Bai Yang and Xie Fang.
