THE GODDESS. (1934) WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY WU YONGGANG. STARRING RUAN LINGYU AND ZHANG ZHIZHI. REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©
'Gossip is a fearful thing...'
God Almighty, this silent film from the period known as the 'Golden Age Of Chinese Cinema' is totally heartbreaking. It's the story of a beautiful young woman, whose name we never know, who is having to work as a prostitute to support herself and her adorable young son, Shuiping.
She finds herself living under the 'care' and 'protection' of a brute of a guy called Zhang, which is as much of a curse as it is a blessing. Zhang, an outwardly affable-looking fella, is a ferocious gambler who apparently has yet to hear of the maxim, 'the house always wins.'
Zhang is not exactly physically violent towards the 'Goddess,' which is an ironic euphemism for prostitute, but he's a financial abuser who takes her meagre earnings away from her so that she's forced to hide what she can squirrel away in a hole in the wall of their small flat.
He's a bully too who uses the woman's love for her son to control her. What a nasty piece of work, huh? A pimp who lives off the earnings of women and a big bully-boy to boot. But maybe she feels she's better off with someone than without. It's a lonely life for a single mother, especially if she has to earn her bread and butter by walking the streets and going off with whatever guy is prepared to pay for her company for a night.
Anyway, time passes somehow and the woman enrols her son in a school, as she's desperate for him to have a good education and to grow up with all the advantages that other kids might have. For a single mum who's also a lady of the night, however, this is easier said than done.
The bitchy, gossipy neighbours already know what the poor 'Goddess' does for a living. When the other parents at Shuiping's school get wind of it, the child is expelled, despite the best efforts of the kindly principal. It's discrimination at its very worst.
How is it a child's fault that, through whatever circumstances, he only has one parent? If it's anyone's fault, it's the dad's fault for opting out of his paternal responsibilities and buggering off, leaving the mother to carry the proverbial can. But poor Shuiping bears the brunt of his parents' shame.
Much to his distraught mother's horror, I might add. All she ever wanted was for her boy to do well for himself. Now, because of the despicable prejudices of a few narrow-minded bigots, that's to be denied him.
What difference does it make to these silly people how the 'Goddess' manages to earn a living? People have to do what they have to do, don't they? Or would they prefer that the child went hungry? Silly, silly people. As a single mum myself, I have no patience with them.
Anyway, the 'Goddess' decides to jack it all in and move herself and her son to a new area where they can make a fresh start. It's a great idea in theory, but when she goes to the hole in the wall (ye olden days ATM machine, in other words!), all of her hard-earned money is gone. There's only one person in the whole wide world who could have taken it...
THE GODDESS is such a visually stunning film that it would nearly make you cry to see the beauty and purity of it. A few well-put-together images tell the story clearly and concisely and the lead actress, Ruan Lingyu, does a superb job of expressing the 'Goddess's' fear and trepidation for her child and his uncertain future, which means far more to her than her own.
Unfortunately for the world of cinema, Ruan Lingyu, the actress once hailed as 'the Chinese Garbo,' committed suicide the year after the film's release in 1934. She was only twenty-four, which is not only a tragically young age at which to die but it also means that she was scarcely out of her teens when she gave that magnificently heart-rending performance as a woman who would endure hardship, suffering and the cruelty of men in order to ensure that her beloved child was assured a solid future.
Sadly, Ruan Lingyu's own upbringing as the only child of a single mother/impoverished housemaid is heart-breakingly reminiscent of the role she plays in THE GODDESS. Throw in a few disastrous romantic relationships with men and a whole lot of negative speculation from the press and one begins to understand why such a beautiful and talented young woman might conceivably think that she was better off out of it.
Her death- from an overdose of barbiturates- was a huge loss to Chinese cinema. Apparently, her funeral procession in Shanghai was a whopping three miles long and three suicides followed her burial. My own funeral had better be as well attended and as much of a big deal, haha.
It's all very reminiscent of the gigantic hoo-ha that accompanied the death and burial of a certain Rudolf Valentino in roughly the same era. It's all very glamorous and mysterious and so desperately, desperately sad, as is the death of anyone so young and with so much unrealised potential. Still, thank God that we've got THE GODDESS to remember her by.
This gorgeous film has been lovingly restored by the China Film Archive and is now available to buy from the BRITISH FILM INSTITUTE. It's black-and-white and silent but with Mandarin intertitles and English subtitles which do the job grand, no bother at all.
The film has a new score by a Chinese modern classical musician and film music composer called Zou Ye. It's performed here by the Chinese Philharmonic Orchestra. The music was commissioned by the KT Wong Foundation. This was established in 2007 and is dedicated to fostering the arts with cultural exchange between China and the rest of the world through collaborative projects.
BFI releases are available from all good home entertainment retailers or by mail order from the BFI Shop. Tel: 020 7815 1350 or online at www.bfi.org.uk/shop
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY OF SANDRA HARRIS.
Sandra Harris is a Dublin-based novelist, film blogger and movie reviewer. She has studied Creative Writing and Film-Making. She has published a number of e-books on the following topics: horror film reviews, multi-genre film reviews, womens' fiction, erotic fiction, erotic horror fiction and erotic poetry. Several new books are currently in the pipeline. You can browse or buy any of Sandra's books by following the link below straight to her Amazon Author Page:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B015GDE5RO
You can contact Sandra at:
http://sandrafirstruleoffilmclubharris.wordpress.com
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