Street Angel (1937 film)


Street Angel, also known as Street Angels, is a 1937 left-wing Chinese film directed by Yuan Muzhi and released by Mingxing Film Company. Starring popular Chinese actor Zhao Dan and iconic Chinese singer Zhou Xuan, the story is set in the slums of Shanghai, chronicling the lives of a band of downtrodden underclass outcasts: a tea house singer, a trumpet player, a newspaper hawker, and a prostitute. The film was released towards the end of the golden age of Shanghai cinema and is regarded as a masterpiece of the Chinese left-wing movement. It also alludes to some of the national struggles faced in China at the time, including issues around economic policy and military conflict. In addition, the depiction of an impoverished neighborhood in a modern city is a compelling examination of how modernization had affected China spatially during this era. The film’s setting is also a comment on the combined effects of modernization and colonialism in Shanghai, specifically.
As one of China’s earliest sound films, Street Angel also made a name for itself by popularizing two timeless ballads: “Song of the Seasons” and “The Wandering Songstress”, both of which are still celebrated as classics of Chinese modern song evolution.

Plot

Set in the slums of old Shanghai, the film begins with a wedding procession. Xiao Chen, a trumpet player in the marching band, establishes a romantic connection with his neighbour, the singer Xiao Hong, who has fled the Japanese invasion of Manchuria with her older sister Xiao Yun. With limited resources and connections, the two sisters are taken in by a couple that owns a tea house and made to work for them. Xiao Yun is forced into prostitution to make a living, while Xiao Hong works as a singer at the tea house.
The film continues to slowly develop the flirtatious relationship between Xiao Hong and her neighbour Xiao Chen. However, one day, Xiao Chen's friend the Barber sees Mr. Gu, a gangster and frequenter of the tea house where Xiao Hong works, take Xiao Hong out after getting a hair cut from the barbershop where the Barber works. The Barber then tells Ah Bing, the young peddler who is also friends with Xiao Chen, to follow Mr. Gu and Xiao Hong, and Ah Bing watches them buying cloth and eating together. When Ah Bing and the Barber tell Xiao Chen what they saw, Xiao Chen misunderstands and, thinking Xiao Hong is seeing other men, he runs back to his room, upset.
Later, Xiao Chen and Xiao Hong get into a fight and Xiao Hong runs back home. When Xiao Yun returns, she sees a sobbing Xiao Hong and comforts her. Later, Xiao Chen and Wang are drinking at the tea house and Xiao Chen gets intoxicated and demands Xiao Hong sing him a song. She reluctantly sings him the song, "The Wandering Songstress," but he leaves angrily before she is able to finish. Soon after, Xiao Hong overhears that her benefactors are scheming to sell her off to Mr. Gu. She runs to Xiao Chen for support, but he shuns her, still under the impression that she is unfaithful.
Eventually, Xiao Chen comes to realize that Xiao Hong only has eyes for him, and he agrees to let her seek refuge with him and Wang. After hearing of the impending transaction involving Xiao Hong, Xiao Chen and Wang go to consult Lawyer Zhang to see if they can do anything to stop it. However, they realize that they cannot afford the costly legal fees.
Without this legal help, the group flees to another district of Shanghai. Xiao Yun also escapes the teahouse to reunite with the others, and she envisions starting a new life with Xiao Chen’s friend, Wang. However, the owner of the tea house and Mr. Gu soon track them all down. Xiao Hong manages to escape, but Xiao Yun stays behind and refuses to reveal her sister’s whereabouts to her adoptive father. He heartlessly calls her a slut and throws her against the wall, to which she responds by throwing a knife at him. The knife misses and he picks it up and throws it back at her, striking her in the chest and dealing a fatal blow. The others come back only to find her half-conscious. Without any money for a doctor, however, there is little they can do but band together. She dies with the group gathered around her, mourning.

Cast

Street Angel, as a film of 'new citizens,' represents Left Wing film and also reflects the National Defence Movement. The thematic music, singing and dancing present in the film solidified the mainstream status of 'new citizen' films around 1937 when the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out. The film’s year of release was in fact the same year that Japan launched its full-scale attack on China. The film also strengthened classical production types and promoted the national spirit by successfully encouraging Chinese citizens and filmmakers to bypass the destruction the war brought to national culture and to the styles of the films in Japanese invaded areas. As a result, 'Street Angel' laid a foundation of thought and art for the rapid restoration of post-war Chinese film. Street Angel is now considered a vivid portrait of Shanghai street life in the 1930s, "capturing the earthy energy and wild collective mood swings" that existed in Shanghai culture prior to the onset of the Second Sino-Japanese War. This landmark work that male lead Zhao Dan described as "'a film about the lowest strata of society in Shanghai” has now become one of the classics of the "leftist" filmmaking period in China, which reached its peak in the 1930s. In 2005, Street Angel was selected as one of the Best 100 Chinese Motion Pictures by the 24th Hong Kong Film Awards, ranked 11th.

Analysis

Street Angel, a story of solidarity, friendship, and love amongst the dregs of urban society, has been interpreted in different ways. The film successfully "describe the wide gulf between rich and poor in the city". According to the Encyclopedia of Chinese Film, the film is "certainly a critique of Shanghai's semi-colonialist society... it has even been described as a Chinese forerunner of Italian neo-realism. A canonized leftist film, it combines Hollywood and Soviet film techniques with traditional Chinese narrative arts." Some scholars believe the film to have been inspired by American director Frank Borzage's 1927 Seventh Heaven, though the title recalls Borzage's film of the same name from 1928, Street Angel. In addition to the clear American influence, the notable Soviet influence appears in such formal choices as the extensive use of quick cuts of close-ups, and in the visually-captivating opening sequence. These techniques are often seen in other classic films such as City Scenes in 1935. Accordingly, the dazzling three-minute opening sequence of the 1937 Street Angels displays “a key trope of the cinematic portrayal of 1930s Shanghai: the simultaneous existence of competing forces from different colonial powers. Tensions among various visual and aural elements are arranged in an ostensibly chronological order, a form also popular in the European avante-garde cinema of the 1920s.” as Xiao Hong in Street Angel''|link=File:Zhou_Xuan_singing_%22The_Wandering_Songstress%22.jpg Alexander Des Forges of the University of Massachusetts-Boston argues that Xiao Chen, not Xiao Hong, is "the primary recipient of the heterosexual gaze" throughout the film, as Chen captures the attention of not only his eventual wife Xiao Hong, but also Xiao Yun and two of his landladies. Like Jin Yan in the 1934 Chinese classic The Big Road, Zhao Dan represented a different kind of male star, with a "jokey and hyperactive sexuality" and masculinity, unlike the more effeminate Chinese male stars of an earlier age.

Left Wing Movement

The Left Wing Movement began in 1930, although it was officially founded in 1932. The movement emphasized anti–imperialism and class struggle. The movement also led to the foundation of the China Film Culture Society in February, 1933. Some capitalist film studio owners and petty bourgeois filmmakers had the idea to resist Japanese aggression and change society, to a certain degree paralleling the paradigm of the left wing. Consequently, the “Chinese Film Culture Movement ” replaced the “Chinese Left Wing Film Movement,” as increasing numbers of professionals in the film production industry joined the China Film Culture Society. The themes of films considered left-wing were usually associated with class struggle; this concretely became the major theme as the movement progressed. Films about class struggle were often filmed from the perspective of laboring people. Until early 1936, left-wing organizations in literature and art circles were dissolved because of the intensified Japanese aggression. The Mingxing studio was closely tied to left-wing film production. Mingxing’s films, aimed at revealing the dimensions of class conflict, caused great responses among viewers.

Production

Produced by Mingxing Company, the film was framed and photographed in Shanghai. Director Yuan Muzhi used much of the city of Shanghai itself, such as Shanghai’s grand colonial buildings, as well as the neon street lights of the 1930s. These visual features serve to contrast the succeeding display of areas of Shanghai marked by narrow streets and neighbourhood poverty. Street Angel was released during a time of increasing censorship by the Nationalist government, and general conservatism in films. The Central Film Censorship Committee and more restrictive censorship laws instituted by the KMT, forced many left-wing films to either ‘fix’ certain lines of dialogue and plot elements or be banned. Subsequently, films like Street Angel borrowed "acceptable" elements from Hollywood in order to circumvent censorship.

Music

During the 1930s, Chinese filmmakers were inclined to view cinema as a Western invention. Despite this view, filmmakers in China felt the need to incorporate indigenous and cultural elements that would be deemed more appropriate for Chinese audiences, and they did this mostly through the soundtrack inclusions.
As one of the early sound films in China, Street Angel is often praised for its innovative use of music, as well as its unique mix of melodrama and comedy. One sequence in particular, where Xiao Chen and his friends attempt to act as barbers, reveals a moment of slapstick or physical comedy in the otherwise dreary third act. The film also features several significant musical interludes.
The two original songs featured in 'Street Angel' are "Song of the Four Seasons" and "The Wandering Songstress", both composed by He Lüting, with lyrics by Tian Han. Like the character Xiao Hong, Zhou Xuan herself had barely escaped being sold: at the age of ten, she narrowly avoided being sold to a brothel, and was instead apprenticed to a song and dance troupe based in Shanghai. She went on to become known as the "golden voice," and after she performed the two abovementioned songs in the film, they became popular and are still recognized as musical expressions of the turbulent 1930s era of Chinese history. Today, these two songs continue to be considered two of the most famous songs in modern Chinese culture. The use of these popular songs, amongst other popular songs of their era, were used to express and emphasize national Chinese characteristics, distinguishing Chinese culture from that of the West.
"The Wandering Songstress" was derived from tanci. It combined a traditional element, in that it was accompanied by a Huqin.
While both songs were essential to the film’s success, “Song of the Four Seasons,” specifically, was pivotal in that it was performed alongside pseudo-documentary war footage. “Song of the Four Seasons” offers an insight into this era's circumstances of suffering that led to people’s plight: it compels the audience with its lyrical description of a maiden driven away from her home, the musical tale accompanied by a montage of war images that evoked Japan’s invasion of Manchuria. Because the footage was played alongside the performance of a love song, the film was able to deliver a message condemning the Japanese invasion without arousing the censors. In late 1930s Shanghai, the National Party exercised strict control over cultural production, meaning that any reference to the Japanese invasion was prohibited, to prevent provoking the masses to rise against Japan’s military aggression.
According to scholar Jean Ma, the differences in the two songs present two separate fates for Xiao Hong: she could either become the possession of the wealthy teahouse client, Mr. Gu, or the lover of the poor musician, Xiao Chen. There are also differences in the film's thematic articulation of the songs, as Xiao Hong offers her values and affection in her performance of "The Wandering Songstress," but shows more resistance in her performance of "Song of the Four Seasons".

Theatrical elements

'Street Angels' constructed a theatrical-style mise-en–scéne by using the distinctive element of a back alley, or lilong, in Shanghai. Lilongs are a typical architectural feature in Shanghai that can be dated back to the city's founding. People’s gaze in the illustrations directed the viewer’s attention from a higher position to a lower position. The lower buildings became the focus, as they are the object of the woman’s gaze in the illustration. This type of composition can be seen in periodicals from the 1880s onwards, as well as in collections such as 'An Illustrated Explanation of Local Customs' and 'A Hundred Beauties of Shanghai'. The theatre is used as model to represent the urban streets and alleys of Shanghai. People’s downward gaze from the box seats is similar to that of the characters in the picture: over–looking alleys from the second floor. Therefore, Shanghai's alleys are fundamentally theatrical in nature. In 'Street Angels,' the setting enhances the mise– en–scéne in the way that it features people leaning out of windows and watching alleys. When the shot return to the balcony, it signals the narrative beginning. Many shots in 'Street Angel' are from second–storey windows, reminding viewers of the composition of the lithographed illustration and the view from the box seats in stage theatres. Also, the shots between Xiao Hong and Xiao Chen’s second–floor rooms maintain the practice of theatrical spectatorship. The equal attention devoted between Xiao Hong and Xiao Chen, which is created by a 180 pan, is similar to the exchanges between men and women in box seats in the theatre.