The Chinese Mirror

Real and False Daughters (1927)

    Another of the popular movies of 1927 was this story of inheritance and greed, combining a romantic triangle, a kidnapping and a climactic fight, interspersed with some comedy throughout.  Two veteran characters actors, Wang Xianzhai and Huang Junfu, nearly always cast as serious villains, in this film portrayed comic bumblers.

Zhenjia Qianjin (1927) 真假千金 (Real and False Daughters)

    Mingxing.  B&W.  Silent.  9 reels.  Premiered August 24, 1927 at the Palace theater in Shanghai. Direction:  Zhang Shichuan.  Screenplay:  Yin Minwei.  Program notes:  Zheng Zhengqiu.   Cinematography:  Dong Keyi.  Sets:  Dong Tianya.  Cast:  Xuan Jinglin (Chang Manying), Zheng Xiaoqiu (Chang Guoying), Huang Junfu (Chang Songzhai), Wang Xianzhai (Hu Yuanfang), Zhao Jingxia (Li Aijuan), Zhu Fei (Kong Buan), Wang Jiting (Gu Shaoru).

    When Chang Xuzhai, a widower and the richest man in the county, dies in early middle age, he leaves behind two teenage children:  a teenaged son Guoying, and his slightly older sister Manying. Always believing his wealth would guarantee his children's futures, Mr. Chang devoted his time to making money, giving little attention to their upbringing and education, either formally or socially.  As a result, Manying just wants to party and have fun, while Guoying thinks of little other than sports.  Both are naive, ignorant of the dangers in the world and how treacherous other people can be.

[plotting to get their niece and nephew's fortune:  Huang Junfu, left, and Wang Xianzhai]

     The father's will stipulates that two-thirds of the estate go to Guoying, with the remaining one-third to Manying as her future dowry.  The size of the estate and the orphans' youth brings out a swarm of relatives and others hoping to share in the inheritance.  Particularly covetous are uncles Chang Songzhai and Hu Yuanfang, who keep hatching schemes to get the fortune, none of which ever work.  Manying steps up her busy social life, and spends lavishly on parties and clubs.  Her circle of friends expands.   One of Manying's girl friends is Li Aijuan, who has a boyfriend named Kong Buan she introduces to Manying.  Another of Manying's new acquaintances is a shady character named Gu Shaoru, also covetous of the heiress's fortune. 
    When Manying expresses a desire to learn to dance, Kong says he is also interested in learning, and offers to be her partner.  As the two frequently go to dancing classes together, and become better acquainted, they begin falling in love.  Li Aijuan grows increasingly  angry and jealous about what she sees happening.  Kong wants to extricate himself from this romantic tangle, and at last decides on Manying, telling Aijuan it is over.  Aijuan angrily goes to see Manying and accuses her of betraying her and stealing her boyfriend.  They have a bitter quarrel, but just as the argument is about to get violent, Guoying intercedes and tries to be a peacemaker.  Aijuan leaves.  Two old friends have now become enemies.  Seething with anger and bitterness, Aijuan approaches Gu Shaoru with the proposal the two of them kidnap Kong, then demand a large ransom sum from Manying, an idea he immediately approves.        Manying is understandably alarmed when she receives the ransom note, but having already squandered so much of her inheritance she is unable to meet the demands.  So she turns to her brother for help, and he generously agrees to amass the necessary amount of ransom money.  The ransom note also instructs Manying to personally deliver the money, and fearing for her safety, Guoying dresses as a girl and goes with his sister.   When they arrive at the ransom drop-off location, they meet the two kidnappers disguised as street thugs, but the brother and sister quickly see through the ruse.  A struggle ensues, but the criminals are quickly overpowered by the athletic Guoying and his sister, who then set free Kong Buan. 
    When the three return home, the police are there to notify them they have captured two additional kidnapping subjects:  it turns out to be the greedy uncles Chang Songzhai and Hu Yuanfang.  When the two had observed the brother and sister preparing the ransom money, they secretly took some of the banknotes, unaware that the bills had been marked beforehand, and the authorities instructed to arrest anyone later attempting to cash them.  So the two uncles had to suffer the embarrassment of being jailed, then having to rely on their niece and nephew to bail them out.  

[Manying (Xuan Jinglin) identifies her two conniving but ultimately incompetent uncles]

Resentments (1926)

    Although Hu Die had one previous screen appearance, in 1925's "Battle Exploits," she wrote In her memoirs that she considered "Resentments" to be the true start of her movie career, as it was her first role of any substance and led to more lead roles and eventually stardom.  After the small part in her first film, in which she had only a few brief scenes, the future "Empress of Film" was feeling frustrated and beginning to question whether she had made the right career choice.  She credited her film school classmate Xu Qinfang and the latter's husband Chen Kengran at their Youlian studio for restoring her confidence by casting her with the lead in this movie, which led to lead roles with larger studios, and eventually the top spot at Mingxing.

Qiu Shan Yuan (1926) 秋扇怨 (Resentments)
literal English title:  Autumn Stirs Up Resentments

    Youlian.  Silent.  8 reels.  Premiered January 10, 1926 at the Palace Theater in Shanghai.  Direction and Screenplay:  Chen Kengran.  Cinematography:  Zhou Ke.  Cast:  Hu Die (Shen Liqiong), Wen Yimin (Xu Yuhui), Xu Qinfang (Chen Shuzhen), Lin Xuehuai (Wu Yi), Zhao Diansheng (Chen Wenyi), Yuan Yijun (Mother Chen), Zhang Zhengxia (Tang Biying). 

[a faithful wife, abused and betrayed]

     Xu Yuhui, the scion of a wealthy family, is having an affair with a woman named Tang Biying, and when he flaunts the extramarital relationship his wife Shen Liqiong tries to drown herself.   Her cousin Wu Yi jumps in and pulls her out, but the exertion causes them both to collapse on the river bank.  Lawyer Chen Wenyi and his sister, Doctor Chen Shuzhen, are passing by, and she revives the pair.  The Chens take Liqiong and Wu Yi back to their home.  When Wu learns why his cousin attempted suicide, he urges her to stay with the Chens rather than return home. She stays for a while, and by the time Liqiong leaves she and Shuzhen have become good friends.
     Trading in rice is one of Xu Yuhui’s business interests, and when the area is stricken by drought, producing a shortage of rice and considerable hardship for the common people, he exploits the situation by raising his prices unreasonably.  One day when Shuzhen comes calling to see how Liqiong is doing, Yuhui makes advances to the doctor which she rejects.  His resentment at this festers, and when he learns Shuzhen and Wu Yi are planning to go riding together, he tampers with her horse’s saddle so that it will throw her during the ride.  When she falls and is slightly injured, Wu Yi takes her to the nearest house, seeking help.  The isolated farmhouse turns out to be occupied by a thug named Ma Chenglong.  He overpowers Wu Yi and locks the couple in the attic, but the captives escape through a skylight.    
    During the time that Liqiong had stayed with the Chens, she and Wenyi developed a strong mutual attraction.  But despite his repeated declarations of love for her, she always declined, believing it her duty to remain with her husband in spite of his adultery and abuse. When Shuzhen and Wu Yi return and tell what has happened to them, Wenyi starts an investigation.  He finds that a servant had seen Yuhui tamper with the saddle.  For Liqiong this is too much and she turns against Yuhui.  When he is brought to trial she tells the whole story of his past misdeeds.  By now, Ma Chenglong has been captured.  Ma also testifies, stating in court he was hired by Xu Yuhui to lock up the couple.  Xu Yuhui is sentenced to prison, and after he is taken away his mistress Tang Biying takes as much of his wealth as she can carry and flees.  Sitting in his prison cell, Xu Yuhui recalls how good Liqiong had been to him and is filled with regret.  He repents his actions too late.
     
     [right, ready to testify against her faithless and criminal husband]

Redressing a Grievance (1927): A Classic Detective's Screen Debut

    For several decades a favorite of many mystery readers in the West has been a detective in ancient China called "Judge Dee," [Di Renjie 狄仁傑 (630-700)]. He was a real life official in the Tang dynasty, and his reputation for crime-solving exploits in his early career as a magistrate were fictionalized in a series of novels by the Dutch diplomat and scholar Robert van Gulik.  Hong Kong director Tsui Hark (徐克) is making a Judge Dee movie starring Andy Lau (刘德华) as Dee and Carina Lau (刘嘉玲) as the Empress Wu Zetian (武则天 625-705), for whom Dee served as a trusted councilor late in his career.  (The Empress Wu has been the subject of film treatments several times in Chinese movie history, and we will discuss these in a future article.)  The Tsui Hark version (the plotline and many still photos are online), will bring in Dee's martial arts expertise, utilizing Sammo Hung as action director.  A martial arts version of Dee conforms to the van Gulik version, in which the Judge was a virtually invincible master swordsman, especially when wielding his legendary "Rain Dragon."  Dee was also a boxing master, a guise he often used when conducting an undercover investigation (another being that of an itinerant physician).

    But while van Gulik made Dee much better-known in the West, the more familiar literary detective in China is "Judge (or Lord) Bao," [Bao Zheng 包拯 (999-1062), aka Bao Qingtian (包青天)] , like Dee a real historical person.  Bao's fictionalized cases have long been the subjects of books, classical Beijing operas, and numerous TV films and miniseries (including children's versions, both live action and animated).  In fact, the number and variety of the TV versions is similar to that of Sherlock Holmes in the West, with such spinoff series titles as "The New Cases of Bao Qingtian," "Young Bao Qingtian," (the hero as a young man) and "Young Detective Bao Qingtian," (the hero as a child), etc.  In China, when I would tell a friend or colleague how much I had enjoyed Judge Dee, the usual reaction would be similar to what a British person's might be if a visitor from another culture said he had avidly read "all the Doctor Thorndyke mysteries, and I've even read a couple about that other fellow, Sherlock what's-his-name."

    So given the character's popularity over the past few centuries,  it stands to reason that Bao's cases have been the subject of numerous Chinese language theatrical films, the first of which we are discussing here.  Reading the plot demonstrates the main reason van Gulik rewrote the Dee stories for a Western audience rather than just translating them:  the classical Chinese detective genre relied considerably on solving cases through supernatural intervention, as in this film, where a murder victim's ghost becomes the star witness in the case, something difficult for a non-Chinese reader to accept in a detective story.  It is unexplained as to why the filmmakers cast two different actors as the victim and the victim's ghost.
 

Wu Pen Ji (1927) 乌盆记 (Redressing a Grievance)

literal English title:  The Story of the Black Pot

    Da Zhonghua Baihe.  B&W.  Silent.  7 reels.  Premiered July 27, 1927 at the Palace theater in Shanghai.  Direction and Screenplay:  Zhu Shouju, adapted from a story in the Ming dynasty collection Bao Gong An (包公案) “Cases of Judge Bao,” by An Yushi (安遇时).   Cinematography:  Zhou Shimu.  Cast:  Wang Zhengxin (Zhao Da), Yang Jingwo (Zhao’s wife), Xie Yunqing (Zhang Bieji), Wang Naidong (Liu Shichang’s ghost), Ma Shouhong (Liu Shichang), Zhou Wenzhu (Liu’s wife), Ling Wusi (Judge Bao).

    Silk merchant Liu Shichang travels among various cities and towns while conducting his business.  

One day, taking shelter from the rain in the humble home of a couple named Zhao, and seeing how poor they are, he gives them some silver coins.  But when Mr. Zhao sees Liu's money, he repays this act of kindness by fatally poisoning the merchant and robbing him.  After burying the corpse, Zhao gives some of the stolen money to his landlord Zhang Bieji as a debt payment.  He also gives the landlord a black pot he had made.  But after he leaves, Liu's voice rises from the pot, demanding he be avenged.  For after Zhao had buried Liu's body, the victim's flesh and blood had blended into the mud used to make the pot, and it had absorbed Liu's ghost.  Zhang takes the pot to Judge Bao's tribunal.  In the end the murderer is brought to justice.

[no still from the 1927 movie version is known to exist, but this is the DVD cover of the 2008 miniseries "Bao Qingtian."  Judge Bao is often pictured as dressed all in black, and usually with a very swarthy complexion and a crescent shaped birthmark on his forehead, as here.  Click on the image to enlarge] 

The Girl Detective (1928)

    After the Mingxing studio management accepted Zhang Shichuan's decision to promote Hu Die as the company's top actress, the future movie "Empress" garnered a succession of plum screen roles in films that were increasingly and unabashedly commercial, often patterned on those coming out of Hollywood at that time.  One such film, very successful at the box office, was a crime story featuring a glamorous amateur detective assisting the police, and in fact solving the crime, despite the opposition of the regular police.  Further twists were that the investigator's own family were the victims, and the investigator herself was in harm's way during the course of her inquiries.  Since the film is lost, we cannot be certain how graphic was the girl detective's luring of the mob boss:  from the handful of movies that survive from that era (and the written synopses of others), it is obvious that Chinese movies then were no less daring or overt in their sexuality than the pre-code Hollywood movies of that era.  In other words, the lady may have gone somewhat beyond mere flirtation.

Nü Zhentan (1928) 女侦探 (The Girl Detective)

Mingxing.  B&W.  Silent.  10 reels.  Premiered November 14, 1928 at the Palace Theater in Shanghai. Direction:  Zhang Shichuan.  Screenplay and Program Notes: Zheng Zhengqiu.  Cast:  Hu Die (the girl detective), Zheng Chaofan (chief of detectives).  Also:  Wang Jiting, Huang Junfu, Tang Jie, Tan Zhiyuan, Gong Jianong, Hu Shan, Xia Peizhen, Zhao Jingxia, Wang Xianzhai, Wang Mengshi, Xuan Ruilong.

    A wealthy but dysfunctional family consists of five people:  the father, a heavy drinker; the mother, a spendthrift who squanders money on frequent and frivolous shopping sprees; their son and his wife, but she is so mistreated she decides to leave him.  The fifth family member, the daughter, is a normal young woman and student. After she graduates, the daughter takes a vacation trip, and during her absence the family home is invaded and ransacked by a criminal gang who injure the family physically and financially.  When the daughter hears the news, she immediately returns home and involves herself in the middle of a complex criminal case.  She first reports to the police station, offering to assist in bringing the gang to justice.  The chief of detectives, a handsome young man proud of having never left a case unsolved, has taken personal charge of the case, and is reluctant to bring in a well-meaning amateur. He declines her offer of assistance.  But as the case drags on he grows increasingly frustrated at the lack of progress.  The lack of success causes the girl to fear the police will fail, so she  decides to conduct her own investigation. When an underworld figure is killed, a man whose past record included offenses similar to this one, she suspects he may have been involved with the gang.  

[below left, Hu Die (right) consoles a mobster's widow (Hu Shan); click on any picture for larger image]

She visits the deceased man's  widow, and learns from her the gang leader's identity.  In the guise of a sexy playgirl, the girl goes to a night club frequented by he mob boss, meets and lures him into trusting her. Through the boss she infiltrates the gang and uncovers the evidence needed to convict them.  She contacts the chief of detectives, the gang's headquarters are raided by police, and all are rounded up.   Afterwards, the girl and the chief of detectives get together. 

[right, Sex as a weapon:  the lady sets a trap]

A Bridge Too Far: Zhang Xinsheng (1923)

[below, in a scene from 'Zhang Xinsheng," Wang Xianzhai is at center, in dark glasses.  Click on image to enlarge]
 
    After the huge success of the previous year's "Yan Ruisheng," the Mingxing (Star) studio decided to follow up on its own hit from 1922,  "An Orphan Rescues his Grandfather," by bringing out another docudrama recreating a sensational true-life murder case.   It was fortunate for Mingxing that "Orphan," which actually saved the studio financially, came out prior to this one, because if the sequence of release was reversed it probably would have finished off the studio at that point.  Although the case had grasped the public's attention when it occurred, and the studio put its best on- and off-screen talent into making it, they exceeded the audience's tolerance limits.  The scenes of degradation and the victim's agonized death throes were too graphic, and the last straw was the recreation of the corpse's exhumation and autopsy:  people literally fled from the theater, and the film was withdrawn within a few days of its release.  Although it may seem strange to refer to a total failure as a "lost classic," this film actually holds a place in China's film history as one of its classic failures.

The First Detective Story: "Women Skeletons" (1922)

     The third in our trilogy of the earliest full-length movies is "Women Skeletons," (Hongfen Kulou 红粉骷髅), an indie produced by the Xinya (New Asia) Film Company, with processing by the Commercial Press Motion Picture Division.  It is notable in Chinese movie history for two "firsts":   it was the first Chinese detective movie, as well as the first Chinese movie adapted from a novel.  What that literary source actually was is a mystery in itself; some Chinese sources say it was an American detective novel, while others say it was French.  In either case, the title of the original was translated by Chinese sources as "The Insurance Gang Sisters."  (I have so far been unable to identify the source specifically, but given its considerable sexual content I would guess it might more likely be French than American.  Readers?).  Chinese film historians list it as the first martial arts movie, and a 1957 interview with writer/director Guan Haifeng seems to confirm this.
    A note about the Chinese title:  "Hongfen Kulou" literally means "Rouge Skeletons."  "Rouge" in Chinese is a metonymy for women, similar in usage to the old term "skirts" in American English.  The skeleton image appeared often in cartoon illustrations of that era to indicate something menacing, and someone in the presence of a skeleton was considered in great peril.  So a 1950s Hollywood-style schlock title for this film might be something like "Deadly Dames."

The First Docudrama: "Yan Ruisheng" (1921)

    In the summer of 1920, Shanghai was scandalized by a sensational murder, a high-profile case and subsequent trial that was the ongoing topic of conversation in the city's numerous cafes, clubs and teahouses.  Among the various reasons for its notoriety, two stand out:  first, the victim was a high-class prostitute, well known in Shanghai; second, the murderer had been a mid-level manager in a respected foreign firm, a playboy who in Manhattan might have been termed a "prominent young man about town."  There were detailed press reports daily as the case wound its way through the judicial system.  As an indication of the victim Wang Lianying's prominence in society at large, in the winter of 1917 she was chosen in an election the top courtesan in Shanghai, no small honor.   Her principal drawback was her temper:  a gossip columnist about that time described it as "very volatile," and Wang as someone who would immediately break off all relations with anyone who offended or displeased her in any way.

    Yan Ruisheng, the man who plotted the murder, had recently lost his job in a foreign firm.  Contemporary news reports describe him as being age 26, well over 6 feet tall, and a university graduate fluent in English and French.  While still employed, he had acquired a taste for the city's bustling night life, and became a habitué of its race track, casinos and better brothels.  Yan had become acquainted with Wang, like himself someone fond of Shanghai's bustling nightlife, and they were frequently seen dining, wining and making the rounds of the nightclubs together.  Of course, this sort of relationship lasts only as long as the money supporting it, and when Yan's source of income disappeared Wang turned her attentions elsewhere.  Yet in  spite of losing his job at the beginning of 1920, Yan continued his lifestyle much as before, partying as if he were the playboy son of a wealthy family, and trying to recover his fortunes at the track and casinos.  By June of that year, he was hopelessly in debt to gamblers who were pressing him for payment.  He went back to Wang and asked her to loan him the money to cover his debts, which she flatly refused to do.  Bitterly recalling how much he had spent on her during his days of prosperity, Yan became consumed  with hatred and began hatching a scheme to murder his ex-lover for the money. 
                                                                                         (Below:  Yan admires Wang's jewelry)
     His first step was to obtain an automobile, a luxury car he borrowed from an old schoolmate.  From another friend he borrowed some up-front money.  On the day of the murder, dressed in his finest and driving the flashy car, Yan went to see Wang and told her he had come into quite a bit of money and wanted to renew their relationship, starting with a drive into the countryside to enjoy the summer evening.  As she usually did when going out, and as Yan had counted on her doing, Wang wore her best jewelry:  a diamond-inlayed bracelet, two diamond rings, a  diamond-inlayed brooch and a gold watch.  With Wang seated by his side, Yan started out, but he soon spotted two friends by the roadside and invited them to join the couple on their outing.  These two men, Wu Chunfang and Fang Rishan, were prearranged accomplices.  They got into the back seat, and the four drove out of the city.  The four drove to a sparsely-populated suburb of Shanghai, where they stopped by a wheat field.

    By now it had grown dark.  Yan stopped the car and under the pretence of having to light the car's headlights, the three men got out and took some chloroform from a small chest.  The two accomplices pulled Wang from the car and into the wheat field, where Wu held a chloroform-soaked cotton cloth over her nose and mouth, ignoring her pleas for mercy.  Just at this time, a farmer was passing by on the road, so to distract his attention Yan offered to take the man for a ride, which he did.  Meanwhile, Wu had grabbed all of Wang's jewelry, then strangled her.  When Yan returned after dropping off the farmer, the three men stuffed the corpse into the car and drove to a more remote site to dump it.  During this drive, they began dividing the spoils, which caused Yan to take his eyes off the road.  He bumped into a tree, damaging a fender.  When the car's owner demanded an explanation for the damage, Yan realized what he had done and how much evidence there was against him, so he fled Shanghai.  Shortly thereafter, the body was discovered, a warrant was issued for Yan's arrest as the prime suspect, and his photo widely published in newspapers.

    After wandering in panic for a time, Yan Ruisheng was recognized by a policeman at the railway station platform in Xuzhou, not far from the scene of the crime.  He was arrested and returned to Shanghai under guard.  News accounts said that at the time of his arrest, Yan was concealing one of Wang Lianying's diamond rings in his mouth.  His two accomplices had also been apprehended, and after two trials the three men were found guilty and sentenced to be shot.  They were transported to nearby Fort Wusong where the execution was carried out.  The movie's conclusion was most gratifying to Chinese audiences.  The train carrying the condemned trio also carried the official witnesses, and as the film's last intertitle expressed it, "the little train was full upon leaving the city, but there were a few vacant seats coming back."

    Although it was rushed into production, a stage version of the story was very popular with theatergoers and had a six-month run.  This inspired several entrepreneurs to pool their funds and arrange for the Commercial Press to handle the filming.  But instead of just copying the theatrical script, the producers hired a noted dramatist to improve on the script and in some cases do a complete rewrite.  In addition, several of the investors had known Yan well, in some cases were close friends, so they were able to assist with the writing by contributing anecdotes and recollections that were not commonly known.  So the script was richer and more detailed by the time the shooting began.

    In order to make the film as close to actual events as possible, several interesting devices were employed.  First, in a break with previous practice, nonprofessionals were used in the principal roles, rather than stage performers.  The title role of Yan Ruisheng was played by Chen Shouzhi, the lead investor in putting the film together.  Chen was himself an employee of a foreign firm, as Yan had been, and in fact was well acquainted with Yan.  He was said to resemble Yan, and could imitate the latter's mannerisms.  Cast in the role of Wang Lianying was a former prostitute who had married and retired from the profession.  The role of the brutish Wu Chunfa, who had carried out the actual murder, was played by Shao Peng, one of Shanghai's top football players, second accomplice Fang Rishan was played by Ren Pengnian, the film's director, while co-director Xu Xinfu played the lead detective in the case, and, in an interesting case of cross-dressing, another investor Gu Kenfu (who later became a director) played the part of Wang Lianying's mother.

    In addition to film, this case has been adapted for other varieties of presentation, including several forms of stage productions, even cross-talk comedy routines and a musical.  These various adaptations and the many publications discussing it have made it into an almost legendary vehicle for mass consumption.