Street Angel (马路天使 Malu tianshi)

Director: Yuan Muzhi

Screenplay: Yuan Muzhi

Cinematographer: Wu Yinxian

Producer: Luo Mingyou

Lyrics: Tian Han

Music: He Luting

Cast: Zhao Dan, Zhou Xuan, Zhao Huishen, Wei Heling

Studio: Mingxing (Star) Film Company, 1937

Description: VHS; B/W; sound; about 100 minutes; no subtitles.Click here for the translated film script, available at MCLC Resource Center.

Synopsis:

Set in Shanghai, Autumn 1935, in the world of Shanghai's underclass. Xiao Hong is a singsong girl who has been sold into bondage to a musician and his gambling wife in Shanghai after fleeing her native Manchuria following the Japanese invasion. In the slum where they live, she meets and falls in love with Xiao Chen, a poverty-stricken trumpet player who lives across the alley. Xiao Yun, Xiao Hong's older sister, who has been forced to become a street walker by the same couple who own Xiao Hong, wins the heart of Chen's best friend Lao Wang, the newspaper vendor. Singing in teahouse, Xiao Hong is seen by a local thug, Gu, who proposes to Xiao Hong's "parents" to buy her as a concubine. The sisters overhear the plan and seek help from Chen and his poor friends. Realizing that they can never afford for a lawer to protect themselves, the young lovers elope to other side of the city. Soon desperated Xiao Yun also hides in their new home. But unfortunately they are seen by Xiao Hong's "father," who follows them and informs the thug. In the conflict, Xiao Yun is stabbed and dies without treatment because the doctor won't come for no money.

About the director:

Yuan Muzhi (1909-1978), born Yuan Jialai in Ningbo, Zhejiang, went to school in Shanghai at age 13. He was very active in theater when he was in middle school and college. and won a fame of "Protean" for his expressive performances. He entered the Diantong Film Company in 1934 and starred in Taoli jie (The Plunded of Peach and Plum, 1934) and Fengyun ernü (Sons and Daughters of The Storm, 1935). Later he transferred to the Mingxing (Star) Film Company and played two characters in Shengsi tongxin (Unchanged Heart in Life and Death, 1936). His success in acting eventually encouraged him to direct films. Yuan made his directorial debut Dushi fengguang (Cityscape) in 1936 and second film Street Angel in 1937. Shortly after the breakout of the War of Resistance Against Japan (1937-1945), he went to Wuhan and then Yan'an, the base of Chinese Communist Party in the war time, and participated in the production of documentary Yan'an and Eight Route Army. He became the head of the Northeast Film Studio in 1946 and head of Central Film Bureau in 1949.

About the stars:

Zhao Dan (1915-1980) was one of the greatest actor in China. Born Zhao Feng'ao in Yangzhou, Jiangsu. He was fascinated with film and drama since childhood, which he spent in a theater that his father owned. In 1931, he went to study traditional ink painting in Shanghai Art Academy and joined the Leftist Dramatist Association. He starred in over twenty films in the Star Studio since 1933, of which Shizi jiatou (Crossroad, 1936) and Street Angel were most popular ones. During the war time, he was active in propaganda theater and was imprisoned by a warlord in Xinjiang for five years. After he returned Shanghai in 1945, he starred in Yaoyuan de ai (Remote Love, ), Xingfu kuangxiang qu, Liren xing, Wuya yu maqu (Crows and Sparrows, 1949), and many other films. In 1957, he was awarded as Best Actor in Films Between 1949 to 1955 for his performance in Crows and Sparrows. He played a series of historical figures the 1950s, including the beggar/educator Wu Xun, the great Chinese herbalist Li Shizhen, and talented musician Nie Er.

Zhou Xuan (1918?-1957) was one of the most famous singer/actress in Chinese sound cinema in the 1930s and 1940s. Her personal life still remains largely a controversial mystery. It is commonly known that she was an adopted child in Shanghai and started learning singing and dancing at age 8 in order to avoid being sold into prostitution. She entered Lianhua Singing and Dancing Troupe in 1930 and performed in private radio stations after the troupe was disbanded. In June 1935, she joined the Yihua Film Company and started her screen performance as supporting actress. Yuan Muzhi sought her out for the role of the singsong girl Xiao Hong in Street Angel, and it was an extreme hit. Her lovely performance and sweet voice won her a sobriquet "Golden Voice" and established her stardom. She performed in aver forty films produced by a variety of studios, among which Street Angel, Yi Jiangnan (Reminiscence of the South Yangzi, 1947), Ye dian (Night Inn,1947), and Qinggong mishi (Secret History of the Qing Court, 1948) were her major works. She also sang on and off screen and was acclaimed as "the voice of Chinese Old Shanghai." Many of her songs became popular classic and can still be heard today (e.g. the soundtrack Wong Kar-Wai's 2000 film In the Mood for Love includes one of her song). Unfortunately, the talented entertainer suffered an extremely difficult personal life and had psychological problems and poor physical condition. She died of illness at about age 39.

Questions to ponder: These are a few questions suggested for you to think about while reading the assigned articles and watching the film. Please jot down ideas and notes on details or scenes you think are relevant for class discussion. 1. Can you identify any film genre conventions (e.g. romantic comedy, melodrama, film noir, etc.) that Street Angel draws on or go against? 2. How do you relate the film to the national crisis that China was facing in the 1930s? Can you read the story allegorically? 3. Chinese cinema fully entered sound film stage in 1936. How does Street Angel reflect the transition from silent cinema to the "talkies"? 4. The film features two famous songs--Song of Four Seasons (Siji ge) and Wandering Singer (Tianya genü), written by famous leftist playwright Tian Han and composed by the musician He Luting. How do these two songs fit in the narrative of the film? 5. The beginning of the film shows a series of rapid cuts from Shanghai's spectacular skyline to the dark underworld. How do you interpret the representation of modern city in the film?

Relevant readings:

Clark, Paul. 1987a. Chinese Cinema: Culture and Politics Since 1949. Cambridge UP. 4-21.

Ma Ning. 1989. "The Textual and Critical Difference of Being Radical." Wide Angle 11.2:22-31.

Palmer, Augusta. "Scaling the Skyscraper: Images of Cosmopolitan Consumption in Street Angel (1937) and Beautiful New World (1998)." In Zhen Zhang, ed., The Urban Generation: Chinese Cinema and Society at the Turn of the 21st Century. Durham: Duke UP, 2007, 181-204.

Web Sources: Ling Lung Women's Magazine (1931-1937); An Illustrated History of the Communist Party of China; Tales of Old Shanghai.