"Comrades in arms! Tell me that you love your country. Those who love China, raise your hands!"
If you find yourself irresistibly following the command of patriotic charmer Wang Renmei — shown above in a memorable scene from her debut film, Wild Rose (1932) — stop reading right now and order a copy of the recently released DVD of this silent classic. If you still need a little convincing, then read on.
Written and directed by Sun Yu, Wild Rose is an early example of the left-wing film movement that arose in response to Japan's aggression against China during the 1930s. According to the memoirs of Wang Renmei, Sun wrote the script in response to the September 18th Incident (1931) and subsequent occupation of Manchuria. Filming started at the end of the year and finished just as the Japanese army launched its attack on Shanghai on January 28th.
Knowing about these events definitely adds to the viewing of Wild Rose, but the heart of the film — a simple story of love and friendship — has a universal appeal which requires no familiarity with that turbulent era.
Korean Chinese actor Jin Yan plays an idealistic rich-kid artist who finds his muse in sassy village girl Wang Renmei. After she loses her father in a fire, he takes her to Shanghai, where they end up living in a tenement with his two buddies. Their makeshift family is broken apart by the trials of poverty, but they are finally reunited during a demonstration to save China.
Prior to her debut in Wild Rose, Wang Renmei was a member of the famous Ming Yue Song & Dance Troupe (founded by Li Jin-hui, the father of Chinese pop music). In 1931 after the group signed a contract with the Lianhua Film Company, Wang caught the eye of Sun Yu, who'd been scouting the group for new actresses. Sun wrote the script for Wild Rose with Wang in mind, and by her own admission, she essentially played herself in the film.
While Wang's ingenuous charm is enough to make her eminently watchable, she more than proves her acting chops by gracefully handling the film's many shifts from comedy to romance to drama.
She even performs a little slapstick in one of Wild Rose's funniest scenes, in which Jin Yan dresses her up and takes her home to meet his father. Unaccustomed to wearing heels and stockings, Wang makes a hilariously disastrous first impression.
It's easy to see why Sun Yu chose Wang Renmei as his own muse. She's the perfect embodiment of the vitality and optimism that characterized his films.
Known in his heyday as the "Poet Director" (and recognized nowadays as Chinese cinema's first auteur), Sun was also a meticulous craftsman who strove to raise the technical quality of Chinese filmmmaking to Hollywood standards. Wild Rose features the first crane shots to appear in a Chinese film. Wang Renmei recalls that Sun commissioned the construction of a "steel-framed, hand-operated camera crane over 13 metres high" to help him portray the crowded spaces of Shanghai's tenement buildings.
"Those kind of people don't know anything about art. They have no idea what you've achieved!"
All of these elements combine to make Wild Rose an indisputable classic of Chinese cinema. Until now the film has only been available on a poor quality VCD with untranslated intertitles and no music. But thanks to the efforts of Richard Meyer (Board President Emeritus of The San Francisco Silent Film Festival), Wild Rose can finally be seen in the manner it deserves.
Expertly translated English intertitles are presented alongside the original Chinese titles, and the film is accompanied by a beautiful score composed by pianist Donald Sosin, who has worked his music magic on such films as Nosferatu and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Donald's playing exhibits an extraordinary sensitivity that's perfectly attuned to the nuances and depths of Sun Yu's lyrical cinema.
The Wild Rose DVD can be ordered directly from The San Francisco Silent Film Festival. It's a must-buy not only for Chinese movie fans but also for connoisseurs of world cinema.
What... you're still not convinced? Then take a look — and listen — at the following clip.
Note: Translated excerpts from Wang Renmei's memoirs were published in Griffithiana 60/61 (October, 1997), which also includes several articles by and about Sun Yu.
