Cinema
Street Angel
馬路天使
Yuan Muzhi · 1937
Synopsis
In the low quarters of Shanghai, two sisters who fled occupied Manchuria live with the couple who run a teahouse: the elder, Xiao Yun, is forced to solicit, the younger, Xiao Hong, sings for the customers. Opposite, the trumpeter Chen and his friends share a room; Chen and Xiao Hong court each other from window to window. A quarrel separates them, then Xiao Hong learns that her guardians want to sell her to a rich thug, and she turns to Chen.
Context
The film was released on 24 July 1937, produced by Mingxing; the title takes up that of a film by Frank Borzage. Zhou Xuan's two songs, composed by He Luting to Suzhou tunes, with lyrics by Tian Han, became classics of modern Chinese song; one accompanies war images that evoke the invasion of Manchuria, which made it possible to criticise Japan despite the censorship. The film was kept from the public from 1949 to 1976. The Festival des 3 Continents showed it in Nantes in 2003.
Who it is for
A sound film of an hour and a half, in which songs play a large part; it exists on DVD with English subtitles.
Prizes and reception
Eleventh among the hundred best Chinese films in the Hong Kong Film Awards list of 2005; Larousse sees in it a foreshadowing of Italian neorealism.