The earliest Chinese movies were filmed without a script, just a story outline, with the actors largely ad-libbing the progress of the plot. This began to change at the beginning of the 1920s with the appearance of "Yan Ruisheng." In addition to being China's first full-length motion picture, it marked several other "firsts." Although filmed without a complete script, it was one of the first two Chinese films to have a published "synopsis." This kind of synopsis consisted of two parts: the first included a basic plot and the main characters and their actions; the second had "intertitles," which consisted of dialogues and explanations. This was the model Chinese filmmakers followed until 1925.
In that year, the Shanghai periodical "Eastern Magazine" (东方杂志) published the first screenplay in Chinese, "Mrs. Shentu" (Shentu Shi 申屠氏 ), relating the story of a woman seeking revenge on her husband. It was never actually filmed, as the scenarist, a Harvard-educated young Chinese named Hong Shen 洪深 , was unable to obtain the necessary financial backing. That is not surprising, considering the screenplay had 592 scenes in all, divided into 7 large sections. But it is still a landmark in Chinese movie history, as the first script to actually be a screenplay, including instructions for scene changes, camera angles, etc., and employing such new film terminology as "fade in," "pan," etc. So although it never went before the camera, it took Chinese film history to a new stage by providing a new type of film literature, one intended for publication and reading as well as providing filming guidelines.
A Strained Father-Son Relationship
Hong Shen was born December 31, 1894 in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province. He was fond of drama and literature from childhood, but majored in chemistry at Qinghua University in Beijing, apparently at his father's insistence. After graduation in 1916, he went to America to study chemical engineering at MIT. But a few years later, events back home changed his life forever: his father Hong Shuzu 洪述祖 , a former official in the Yuan Shikai government, had been involved in the 1913 assassination of Song Jiaoren 宋教仁, the chief deputy to Sun Yat-sen and the principal political obstacle to Yuan Shikai's ambition to establish a new dynasty, with himself as first emperor. After Yuan's downfall, Hong Shuzu fled to the East China city of Qingdao, a German concession at the time, and was granted asylum by the authorities. But with Germany's defeat in World War I, he was forced to leave Qingdao and hide out in Shanghai, where he worked for the Japanese as an opium distributor. In 1919, Hong Shuzu was recognized, arrested and taken back to Beijing for trial. Found guilty, he was hanged on April 15, 1919. Hong Shen's thoughts and emotions on hearing of his father's sad end are not recorded in his many writings: all we know is, he did not return to China immediately; rather, that fall he transferred to Harvard, and began the study of drama and literature. At the same time, he took classes at a Boston language school and acting and directing courses at the school attached to The Copley Theater in that city. After graduation, he joined a professional theater company which toured various places in the U.S. When he did return home in 1922 to accept a professorship at Fudan University in Shanghai, Hong Shen did tell a Chinese newspaper he had broken with his father some years before, and would have nothing more to say on the matter.
Bringing Innovation to China's Stage and Screen
As the first Chinese to receive systematic dramatic training in
the West, Hong Shen established some more Chinese theatrical "firsts":
he coined the Chinese term "huaju" 话剧 for drama, to distinguish
entirely spoken Western-style stage presentations from the traditional
semi-spoken, semi-sung Chinese opera productions; he was the first to
create the role of a theatrical director as a specialized, professional
function, and to set up a system of regular rehearsals. As mentioned
earlier, he wrote the first full screenplay for a Chinese motion
picture, and several years later would script the country's first sound
film.
His first stage production in 1923 was "Zhao the Devil" (Zhao Yama 赵阎王), for which he wrote, directed and starred. Hong followed this with "The
Young Mistress's Fan" (Shao Nainai de Shanzi 少奶奶的扇子), which he adapted
from Wilde's "Lady Windermere's Fan." (He would write and direct a film
version in 1928.)
In 1925, he formally accepted an invitation from the Mingxing company to join it as a writer. At that time, motion pictures were
still considered as something lower than stage productions, so Hong
Shen's choice was ridiculed at that time as "prostituting his art."
But Hong's ambition was to become China's Henrik Ibsen, aspiring to
reform society through drama. He believed that as cinema's acceptance
became more widespread, it would become a useful tool in fulfilling his
"Ibsen dream."
Compared to his showy first stage production, Hong Shen's initial
film efforts were somewhat prosaic. His first film, in 1925, was
"Young Master Feng" [aka "Playboy" (Feng Da Shao Ye 冯大少爷), the story of
a playboy's awakening, and in the same year he directed "Wishing" [aka
"Old Couple"] (Zao Sheng Guizi) 早生贵子), in which an heirless old
landlord takes a concubine in order to have a son. Both of these were
largely ignored by the public.
But the following year, Hong Shen made his breakthrough and
established his reputation as a filmmaker with two successful
productions. The first, "Roses in April," (Siyue li de qiangwei chuchu
kai四月里的蔷薇处处开), was a romantic comedy which satirized the double
standard in sexual behavior. Hong did the script, Zhang Shichuan directed, and Dong Keyi was cinematographer. The leading male
character, a bank manager, a married man with a concubine, harrasses his serving girl and tries to seduce any woman he encounters. This brings him to near-disaster when he meets a female
grifter who entices him into a scam. Fortunately, he realizes his
mistakes in time, and avoids being wiped out. The leads were played by
Wang Jiting 王吉亭 as the bank manager/playboy, and Yang Naimei 杨耐梅 as the
grifter, and both received warm reviews for their performance. While
the film followed a popular genre of the time by criticizing a social
issue, it was novel in that presented its views through comedy. Hong
Shen's second success was "Love and Gold" (Aiqing yu Huangjin 爱情与黄金),
which unlike "Roses" was a romantic tragedy. A young girl (Ding
Ziming), Chen Lianzhen, falls in love with elementary school 
teacher Huang
Zhijun (played by Hong Shen himself), but because she is an orphan her marriage
rights are controlled by her brother and his wife, who have other plans
for her. Wanting to curry favor with a local official, they demand
Chen become the official's concubine, a proposal she flatly refuses.
Chen breaks with her family and marries the teacher. Later, he is
employed by a business firm, but their economic situation is bad. In order to get a raise, he caters to
his employer's every wish, and when the latter asks Huang to divorce Chen to marry the boss's daughter, Huang does so. During the wedding
ceremony, Chen shows up with a gun and kills herself in front of
everyone. Huang, shocked to his senses and truly remorseful, kills
himself.
[above right, Ding Ziming and Hong Shen as a young couple in financial difficulty]
[left, the pursuit of wealth ends in tragedy; Hong Shen is second from left, front row, while Ding Ziming lies dead]
Unlike "Roses in April," which raised the topic of love as a
moral issue, "Love and Gold" looked at the moral value of love, asking
the question "which is more important – love or money?" Chen's brother
and his wife valued wealth more; Chen died for love; and Huang swung
between the two. Like "Roses," this was also a critical and popular success.
As a writer, director, and social critic, Hong Shen had major
impact on China through motion pictures and theater, and he will appear
again in future articles.
Hong Shen Filmography
Written and Directed:
1925:
Young Master Feng (co-directed with Zhang Shichuan)
1926:
Love and Gold (also program notes)
Roses in April
He Wants to Have a Baby (also program notes)
1927:
Bachelor Secretary [aka Miss Wei's Profession]
1928:
The Young Mistress's Fan (adaptation for screen)
Classmates' Romance (co-directed with Zhang Shichuan)
Written:
1929:
Papa Loves Mama (also program notes)
1931:
Songstress Red Peony
1933:
Sweetgrass Beauty (co-written with Ma Wenyuan)
Oppression
1934:
A Bible for Girls
1935:
A Hero for our Time
Down-Trodden Peach Blossom
1936:
New and Old Shanghai
Women's Rights (original work and screen adaptation)
Flowers and Grass
1937:
New Year's Money
4000 in Gold
Flower of Society
Heaven and Earth in a Dream
Gilded City
1939:
The Young Mistress's Fan (readaptation for the screen)
1948:
The Rooster Crows at Daybreak
1949:
The Hard Life
Directed:
1933:
Red Tears on an Iron Plate (also program notes)
1948:
Frailty, thy Name is Woman (co-directed with Zheng Xiaoqiu)
Acted:
1926:
Love and Gold (Huang Zhijun]
1927:
Bachelor Secretary [aka Miss Wei's Profession] (Sun Liqun)
1931:
Splendor of the Old Capital (Tong Liu)
