The Chinese Mirror

《Love Blossoms From Bloodshed》(1930)

Di Xue Qing Hua (1930) 敌血情花 (Love Blossoms From Bloodshed)
alternate English title: (Legend of the Miao and Yao)

    Shanghai Shadow Play. B&W. Silent. Direction: Lu Hanping. Cast: Lin Meiru, Hu Beifeng, He Zhigang.

    Although more than 90% of China's population are of the dominant Han majority, there are over 50 ethnic minorities in the country. This film, a Chinese "Romeo and Juliet" (only with a happy ending), was set among two of these southern minorities, the Miao and the Yao.

    In ancient times, the Miao and the Yao peoples were hostile and often warring neighbors, in which the slightest incident could touch off fighting and many casualties on both sides. The deep-seated resentment between the two lasted for many years. One day, a Yao girl and a Miao boy met by chance in a forest and fell in love. Although any relations between tribal members was strictly forbidden, when the two tribes' chieftains died the Yao people seized the opportunity to announce their desire for peace. From this first step, the two tribes negotiated an end to hostilities, sealing the deal with the wedding of the two young people.

1926-1928: The Rise of Traditional Costume Films

    For a few years in the 1920s, specifically 1926-28, a new movie genre became dominant in China, which eventually provided a transition between the "Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies" romances that immediately preceded it, and the swordplay and "gods and spirits" fantasies which followed it and came to dominate Chinese screens at the end of the decade.  To a considerable extent the movies of this genre were a counter reaction to the "fashionable dress" films which flourished in the mid-1920s, in which familiar stories from ancient Chinese literature and legend were transplanted to modern times and performed in mid-1920s fashions.  We discussed one of these films earlier, the sole survivor of that era.

  Production of traditional costume films began brewing in 1926, and in just two years had developed into a vigorous, surging movement.  The statistics from that time show there were more than 75 traditional costume films produced in 1927 and 1928, from at least 17 film studios.  These statistics do not include costume swordplay films, which were also being made but had not yet achieved a dominant position. The two studios leading the pack were the Dazhongguo Company, with 20, and Tianyi (later the Shaw Brothers), with 11.

    The major, and obvious, way in which traditional costume films differed from "fashionable dress" films was by putting the characters in ancient costume and setting them in historical locations and eras. But these were not the only reasons for the newer genre's popularity.

《The Pain of Separation》(1931)

Ketu Qiuhen (1931) 客途秋恨 (The Pain of Separation)

    Hong Kong Film Co.  B&W.  Silent.   Premiere:  March 26, 1931.  Direction and Screenplay:  Li Beihai, adapted from a Cantonese folk tale and opera.  Cinematography:  Ren Pengnian.  Cast:  Sit Siu-wing [Xie Zhaorong]  (Miu Lin-sin), Lap Kin-han [Li Jianyin] (Mak Chau-kuen), Cheng Wah-chi [Zheng Huayi] (Emperor Chan), Cheung Wai-man [Zhang Huiwen] (Maid), Chu Po-chuen [Zhu Puquan] (Servant).

    Note:  cast members names are given in the Cantonese versions, with Mandarin names in brackets.  Character names are in parentheses.

    A brilliant young scholar meets a courtesan, and they fall in love at first sight.  When war breaks out, he leaves for the army, vowing to return.  But the war also causes the couple to lose contact, and after composing a ballad vowing his undying love, he sets out on a long journey searching for her.  In the end, the two are reunited.  This was the first Hong Kong production to be adapted from a folk tale/Cantonese opera.  It was remade in 1949 by the Sanxing (Three Star) studio, but with a different ending similar to that of "The Butterfly Lovers."

《The Witty Sorcerer》(1931): Hong Kong Comes Back

Zuo Ci Xi Cao Cao (1931) 左慈戏曹操 (The Witty Sorcerer)
literal English title:  Zuo Ci Makes Fun of Cao Cao

    Hong Kong Film Co.  B&W.  Silent.  Release date:  March 14, 1931.  Direction and Screenplay:  Li Beihai, adapted from Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Luo Guanzhong (ca.1330-ca.1400).  Cinematography:  Peng Nian.  Principal cast:  Li Beihai, Xu Menghen.

    This was the first full length narrative film made in Hong Kong, as well as the first made there following the General Strike which shut down much of Hong Kong's industry in 1926.  In preparing his script, Li Beihai drew on a section of the Chinese classic literary masterpiece, "Romance of the Three Kingdoms."  It tells the story of how a scholar named Zuo Ci utilized various Taoist arts and magic to tease and poke fun at Cao Cao, the late Han dynasty warlord and tyrant.  Lead actress Xu Menghen 许梦痕 was the top student at the Hong Kong Film Company's acting training class.  Cinematographer Peng Nian was a returned student who had studied in the U.S. for several years.  His photography of this film was praised highly, both interiors and exteriors.  

《Marriage for Peace》(1928)

Er Dumei (1928) 二度梅 (Marriage for Peace)
alternate title:  Xingyuan Hefan 杏元和番 (Xingyuan's Marriage)

    Da Zhonghua Baihe.  B&W.  Silent.  10 reels.  Premiered August 15, 1928 at the Palace.  Direction and Screenplay:  Zhu Shouju, based on a classical opera.  Cinematography:  Zhou Shimu.  Cast:  Wang Yiming, Chen Yitang, Xie Yunqing, Xu Jingzhen, Gao Qianping, Wang Yiman.

    Complex story of the machinations leading to the merger through marriage of two warring noble households during the late Tang dynasty.

[right, advertisement for《Marriage for Peace》, featuring the two young people caught in the inter-family peace talks] 

 

《Luoyang Bridge》(1928)

    Mingxing.  B&W.  Silent.  9 reels.  Premiered February 5, 1928 at the Palace Theater in Shanghai.  Direction and Screenplay:  Zhang Shichuan, adapted from the classical opera "Number One Scholar Cai Builds the Luoyang Bridge".  Cinematography:  Dong Keyi.  Cast:   Zhu Fei (Cai Xiang), Ruan Lingyu (Wang Yongxu), Huang Junfu (the butcher), Zhou Aixue (Mrs. Cai), Gong Jianong (Cheng Huanwen), Zhao Jingxia (the widow), Wu Jiren (Wan Pengfei), Wang Yingying (Wei Yunjuan), Ye Liangde (Wang Bingzhang), Wang Mengshi (Song Renzong), Xiao Ying (Wang Yong), Li Shifan (Mrs. Wang), Wang Jiting (Xia Dehai), Ding Ziming (Guan Shiyin).

    The Luoyang Bridge, which spans the Luoyang River near the city of Quanzhou, Fujian Province, is one of the great engineering achievements in the history of bridge construction.   Construction began in 1053 A.D. and took fully seven years to complete.  The governor of Quanzhou, Cai Xiang (1012-1067), designed the bridge and supervised its construction.  (Cai Xiang finished first in the year he passed the imperial examinations, which entitled him to the lifetime designation of “Number One Scholar.”)  The film relates a love story against the background of building the bridge.  

[Below are three surviving photos from this film, but the lack of specific plot details makes it difficult to tell exactly what is happening in each scene, although in the one at top left Zhou Aixue (center) appears to be counseling Ruan Lingyu (left) and Zhu Fei (right)] 

Some Good Articles from a Commercial Site

     The Chinese Mirror does not carry advertising, because it was conceived as an online counterpart of an academic journal, one that is popularized rather than scholarly.  However, we have no qualms about linking to commercial sites, especially when they offer something of historical relevance.  YesAsia.com, an online marketer of Asian entertainment products, has a supplementary section called Yum Cha!, which contains a considerable number (currently 122) of review articles dealing with various Asian filmmakers and film genres.  Two of the latter that relate directly to articles recently posted here are:  "The Heroic Tradition - Chinese Martial Arts Costume Epics" by James Mudge, which is exactly what the title indicates, and "Strange Stories from Chinese Movie Studios" by Mike Crandol, which discusses the available cinema and TV versions of Pu Songling's classic (and massive) Qing dynasty collection of short stories, Liaozhai Zhiyi 聊斋志异 ("Strange Stories from Liaozhai"), a rich source for Chinese filmmakers over the decades.
       Of course, one objective of these articles, written by experienced and prolific internet reviewers, is to entice the reader into buying the products discussed.  (There is an emphasis on currently available videos, and each of those mentioned is linked to a page which provides all the data needed to order.) But there is also a lot in them that could add to one's enjoyment and appreciation of the films.  So think of it as a well-done infomercial from which you might learn something.

《Romance of the West Chamber》(1927) and Ancient Costume Movies

    In its first 20 years, Chinese movie themes main trends were contemporary social issues and love stories in modern dress, with even the Tianyi studio's 1926 version of the classic "Butterfly Lovers" costuming the actors in the fashions of the mid-1920s to relate a story set in the past.  But toward the end of the decade Chinese audiences were starting to tire of  modern dress films with limited themes, so around 1927 a vigorous upsurge of "ancient costume movies" swept through the film community.  Unfortunately, most of the ancient costume movies from those years are lost, and the earliest of these we can see today is 1927's "Xi Xiang Ji" 西厢记 (Romance of the West Chamber), directed by Hou Yao.

Observing "the ancients" filming "the ancients"

    On April 6, 2001, the 25th International Hong Kong Film Festival had a lively session.  In the exhibition list for the "China's Movie Classics" unit of the program, the first-named film was a 1927 Xinmin Film Company production, director Hou Yao's "Romance of the West Chamber."   Because it was a silent, the sponsor took a different approach by bringing in a prominent Hong Kong organist to provide a musical background for this silent classical love story.  The festival program described this showing as "observing the ancients viewing the ancients." 
     In a search of the literature regarding this movie, I found it interesting that there was surprisingly little written about it by Chinese scholars.  In fact, the only in-depth study of this particular film I came up with was by an American scholar (referenced at the end of this post).  The lack of Chinese studies is surprising, as "Romance" is perhaps the sole surviving representative of a time when Chinese movies were in the midst of an "ancient costume movement."