[In a previous post, we discussed "Hongfen Kulou" 红粉骷髅 (Women Skeletons), a successful early Chinese movie, which in addition to being China's first screen detective story, was the first full-length Chinese feature based on a foreign literary work. In the following interview, the film's director tells us of another, less happy, first for Chinese cinema – it was the first Chinese production in which one of its makers was killed during the filming.
Guan Haifeng 管海峰 was a veteran stage director when he made "Women Skeletons", his initial screen directing effort. He had one previous screen-writing credit, adapting the popular stage play "Victims of Opium" for the screen. Despite the box office success of "Women Skeletons", Guan Haifeng continued to concentrate on the stage, making only four more movies. As often happens with recollections that come many years after the event, some of Guan Haifeng's memories conflict with other Chinese sources we have used. Since the actual film is lost and cannot be used as a defining reference, we have given each as written. Full bibliographic information for this interview is at the end of the article.]
[above, director Guan Haifeng]
"Women Skeletons" was one of the earliest Chinese full-length feature films, and although I was its director, so many years have gone by that I don't know if I can recall all the details, but this is what I do remember:
I had been fascinated with dramatics from childhood, all kinds of drama. In Shanghai, Sun Juxian 孙菊仙 and I started a theater company, and we put on all kinds of stage productions – classical plays, modern plays, even a foreign play about the Mafia. I was also an avid reader of many Chinese and international theater magazines, and learned a lot from them.
About that time, I read a foreign magazine called "Huanqiu Zazhi" 环球杂志 (World Magazine?), which said that motion pictures were one of the world's three largest industries, and this really got me interested in movies. Since all my experience was in stage drama, I had very little knowledge of movies, but I knew it had quite a future. Especially in China. At that time, Chinese movies were mostly comedy shorts, with no full-length narrative films yet, so that made me want to make a full-length film.
I had a foreign friend, his name was Mose, who had once worked for an American movie studio editing scripts. Now he was working for the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, but he had actual experience working in movies. So since I liked movies so much I would often call on him for advice on the technology and process of making a movie. He also lent me some foreign books on filmmaking, and I learned enough from studying these that I gained the confidence and courage to make a Chinese narrative film.
But I suffered from a lack of capital and partners. However, just when I was in the midst of planning the movie, an old friend named Yin Xinfu (殷宪辅) arrived with his brother from a distant city on a visit. When we discussed the topic they agreed with me completely that movies had a bright future, and moreover they were prepared to invest in a movie studio, which we called the New Asia Film Company. More than that, they asked me to take charge of all the planning.
After we decided to make the movie, the first problem was what film to make. Plot selection was of the greatest importance, because the script has such a direct effect on a film's investment and profits. According to Shanghai residents' psychology and taste, the stage productions that were most welcome and selling the most theater seats at that time were some martial arts plays. So we decided to select our plot from that angle, but wanted to do something unique and novel. One of the Chinese and foreign detective stories I had read included a wonderful story called "The Insurance Gang's Ten Sisters", so I chose this source for my rewrite.
Another thing I observed from my writing for the stage was that a scriptwriter's popularity and prestige had considerable influence on the business success of a production. So with this in mind I asked Qian Huafo to approach the famous scholar Yuan Hanyun (袁寒云) (eldest [sic] son of Yuan Shikai) and get him to lend his name to the project. Also, the Yin brothers sent him 500 yuan. It was Yuan Hanyun who suggested we change the title to "Women Skeletons".
The story line revolved around the dark side of society, and was a detective story. In it, a group of [prostitutes] working with a crooked insurance company organize into a gang for the purpose of seducing men and then robbing them. They lure one naive young man, but hold him in a secret hideout while keeping him distracted with their charms and drugs, planning to gradually poison him, then collect heavily on a fraudulent insurance policy. In the end the scheme is exposed.
In writing the plot of "Women Skeletons" I generally divided it into four parts. One, when the "Ten Sisters" are first organized as a gang, each of them is assigned specific duties by the head of the gang, and each day assigned to specific areas and tasks, then sent to carry them out. Like a military unit.
Two, the gang members bedazzle and lure a young man: a young couple are sitting on a bench in the park and talking of love. Just then, a well-dressed and pretty girl passes by the young man, and he is dazzled by her perfume (actually a mind-befuddling drug) and she drops her handkerchief as she passes him. The well-mannered young man picks it up and returns it to her. The two talk for a bit, and the young man cannot keep himself from being entranced by this lovely girl and her scent. When the girl he had been with sees this happening, she is angry, and has no other recourse but to leave. When she gets home she tearfully tells her elder brother about it. Her brother is a detective, and while he is outraged at this insult to his sister, he suspects the reasons behind it, and launches an investigation.
Three, cracking the case: after two months of investigation, the gang is brought to justice. The investigators follow the clues, pinpoint the gang's hideout, then the police department dispatches a large number of detectives and policemen to surround the hideout and apprehend the criminals. There is a fierce fight, but in the end the gang members are all rounded up.
Four, reunion: the young man being held by the gang is found in a total state of confusion, and close to death, but with his girl friend's patient and loving care, he gradually recovers. In the end, the young lovers become a family.
When finished, the movie was in 12 large reels, and about 9,000 chi* (尺) in length.
"Women Skeletons" was shot on nitrate film rented from the Commercial Press, which also did the processing. I had friends there, and they gave us a discount on the processing. As I remember, the rental fee was 6 jiao* (角) per chi. It took about two months to complete filming.
Since China didn't have professional movie actors yet, casting was especially difficult. The actors in "Women Skeletons" were recruited from two areas. One group was taken from the stage actors in Shanghai, the other came from teachers and students at a neighborhood boxing gym. The cast numbered about 40 in all.
Allocation of cast roles was pretty much like this: Lu Meiying (陆美英) played the female lead, that of an insurance gang member; Chai Xiaoyun (柴晓云) had the male lead, the young man; Wang Guilin (王桂林) was the gang's chief thug; Hong Jingling (洪警铃) played the drug seller; Shen Zhengfeng (沈正风) was the young woman; and [my friend] Yin Xianfu (殷宪辅) played her detective brother. The minor roles, policemen and thugs, were drawn from the boxing gym.
The backdrops for the movie were modeled and constructed using American methods as the model. We used all imported cardboard, on which were painted very attractive scenes to look like rooms. There were four interior settings in all (not counting exteriors): one, the insurance gangs' headquarters in a cliffside mansion; two, the insurance gang members' dormitory, a large room with pretty flowered wallpaper; three, the room in which the gang entertained visitors, a large Western-style hall; and four, the cellar in the gang's mansion, with stone walls and stone staircase. I designed the costumes, and one relatively new fashion I used was the woman's qipao (旗袍), and this style of dress became the fashion rage in Shanghai after that.
"Women Skeletons" was the first film I ever directed, so I didn't have any real experience to draw on when it came to casting and the other sundry details like setting up the scenery, costuming, makeup, etc., so these things took up a great deal of my time.
But when we were filming the outdoor scenes, there was an accident which taught me a very painful lesson. At the time, most of the exteriors for "Women Skeletons" were being shot in Suzhou. When we were filming the "fight in the water at Baodai Bridge" scene, we thought there would be no problem, because our understanding was that the depth of the river at Baodai Bridge was 7 chi [a bit over 7 feet], we believed the actors in the fight scene were capable swimmers, and we had thoroughly rehearsed the scene back in Shanghai. But when we finished filming the scene, we were startled to discover that one of the actors was missing. Moreover, he was the best swimmer in the cast. We didn't know at that time why he was missing, but were anxious to find him, and immediately asked some local boat people to search for him, hoping they would, but no one was willing to go into the water. Later, a boat person said there was an eddy at one side of Baodai Bridge, and although we had not been filming on that side, it was very possible that after diving into the water he could have been drawn into it.
As soon as we affirmed there had been an accident, we obtained someone to recover the body, and immediately telegraphed the dead man's family. Under the terms of the contract we could have disclaimed any responsibility, but we felt so bad about it we called on our investors to pay the dead man's family some compensation money. After some direct talks between the investors and the dead man's family, they were paid 500 yuan* in compensation.
This fatal accident taught me a serious lesson. Although there were several reasons behind the accident, it might have been avoided if I had determined the river water conditions for certain beforehand. This showed I did not have enough experience.
When it came to the advertising and publicity for "Women Skeletons" we also tried to do something different. We pasted six full-size newspaper ads outside the theater's front entrance, something new at that time for advertising theater productions. In addition, we had a large truck going through the city advertising the movie, decorated with a large picture from one of the scenes – the insurance gang members holding a meeting – and the composition of the picture and the people in it were exactly as they appeared on camera. We also used a loudspeaker, drums and music to attract the attention of people on the street, and gave out playbills. This advertising and publicity were done well, and did a lot to attract crowds.
"Women Skeletons" had its premiere showing on May 10, 1922 at the Olympic Theater in Shanghai. Tickets were priced at three levels: 1, 2 and 3 yuan* (ordinarily, 1 yuan was the highest priced ticket). Despite that, the audiences still fought and elbowed their way in, even Shanghai's foreign residents came to see it, it was really all the rage for a time. Besides being shown in our large cities like Shanghai, Tianjin and Beijing, the picture was also shown in countries like Japan and Vietnam.
[Source: Guan Haifeng 管海峰, "Wo paishe 'Hongfen Kulou' de jingguo'" 我拍摄红粉骷髅的经过 (My experiences in filming "Women Skeletons") Zhongguo Dianying 中国电影 (Chinese Cinema) issue of May, 1957. Reprinted in Gankai hua dangnian 感慨话当年 (Recalling those years with a sigh), by Wang, Hanlun, 王汉伦et al.. Beijing: China Film Press, 1988, pp.20-23.]
*Conversions of units of measurements used in the interview: a chi (尺) is about a foot, or 1/3 of a meter; the yuan (元), is the basic unit of Chinese currency, comparable – but not equivalent – to the US dollar; a jiao (角) is 1/4 of a yuan, a "quarter".
