An Introduction to Silent Film

Directed by Wu Yonggang

In probably her most famous role, Ruan Lingyu, forced by her circumstances to work as a streetwalker, struggles to support her young son in Shanghai. Using prostitution as a metaphor of the degradation and oppression within 1930’s Shanghai, the film separates Ruan Lingyu’s outdoor, streetwalking life from her protective role as a self-sacrificing, loving mother inside her lane house. As these two worlds collide and she strikes out against injustice, director Wu Yonggang puts the blame for her undoing firmly on society whilst preserving traditional patriarchal values.

Directed by Bu Wancang

Less well known today, but critically and commercially acclaimed when released, this is one of several films in which Ruan Lingyu was paired with the popular actor Jin Yan. As an acting partnership they were the Greta Garbo and Rudolph Valentino of the Shanghai Silver Screen, making 7 films together. Here Ruan Lingyu plays the innocent daughter of a peasant farmer who falls in love with the son (Teh-en or De’en) of the local wealthy landlord. Invited to Shanghai she is tricked into staying at the home of one of his deceased father’s concubines where she falls pregnant. Rejected as a suitable wife by ’s mother she is forced to return to the countryside but ultimately the film allows love to partially conquer social inequality.

Both of these films reveal many of the essential characteristics of China’s 1930’s silent films, with Ruan Lingyu being the epitome of a silent movie star. Whilst the films of the 1920s had been dominated by melodramatic love stories, martial arts and crime stories, changes in the social and political climate in the 1930’s had an impact on film. Chiang Kai-Shek’s regime brought censorship into film, and the melodramas of leftist studios, like Lianhua, became infused with political meaning. To be commercially successful the studios needed stars and a media machine involving magazines and publicity events turned the rather dubious profession of actress into glamour and sophistication. Film-making itself had reached a much more professional level in terms of technique and equipment, and in both of these films the directors use cinematic artistry through close-ups, jarring camera angles and abrupt transitions to deliver their message. Finally, Shanghai takes on a particular role in the films of this period and as a sleepless, modern city it is cast as the site of social injustice.

Perhaps most significant to the success of these films is Ruan Lingyu’s mastery of silent acting technique. Her use of facial expression and subtle gestures to convey her character’s inner turmoil is studied but effective. From sadness and hopelessness, to frustration and anguish, and into submission all are revealed without dialogue, providing a very different cinematic experience from contemporary film. Ruan Lingyu essentially became in the public eye the modern Chinese woman: strong, independent, self-assured and opposing social prejudice.