Shénnǚ
CHN 85m Dir: Wu Yonggang Key Cast: Ruan Lingyu
Lots of films are described as "the best film you've never heard of" but I think The Goddess fits that bill better than most. It's one the best-known films of China's cinematic golden age but all the same, I don't think the majority of people would have ever heard of this.
Ruan Lingyu plays the unnamed main character, a woman with a baby son who has turned to prostitution in order to provide for her son. She becomes controlled by 'Boss', who acts as her pimp and tries to take her earnings to gamble with. As the boy grows up his mother hides money to send him to school in order to improve his life. He faces bullying because of what his mother does for a living and when the other parents discover her occupation they demand that the boy be expelled.
It always amazes me how cinema can connect with you. This is a film from China in 1934 and yet it's issues and the strength of the relationships shown in the film still feel relevant here in the UK in 2021. The mother in this film is representative of the struggles many women are still struggling with.
At the time of this film it's thought that about one-thirteenth of the female population of Shanghai were prostitutes and astute screenwriter/director wanted to tell a sympathetic story from their point of view. Due to the censorship of the regime he wasn't able to make the gritty examination he had intended. Actually though I think it ended up being a better, more watchable film. Gritty examinations have their place but you don't need to show the grit in order to effectively show what the character is going through.
I think that Ruan Lingyu's performance here is perhaps the best I've seen in a silent film. She is utterly incredible here, able to really show the full gamete of emotion. I totally believed the love the character showed for her son, I don't think I've ever seen that relationship feel so real on screen without the actors actually being related. She's also fantastic at showing the torment the character goes through, living a tough life and doing everything she can in order to help her son. Sadly Ruan Lingyu only made two more films and committed suicide at the age of 24. Her death was an enormous loss to cinema.
This is an utterly incredible film. It's such a simple premise but it's done so well. It spends time with the characters and allows us to emphasise with them, which is really easy thanks to the astonishing performance by Ruan Lingyu.
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