The Goddess

Shen nu / The Goddess (1934) : Brief Review :

An early path-breaking Classic from Chinese Cinema. As a woman she is a Prostitute but as a Mother she is The Goddess. Wow! This is a fine example of extraordinary writing based on ordinary people where at one side you show her as a prostitute and on the other side you show The Goddess hidden in her in the form of A Mother. Street walker by night, devoted mother by day, a woman fights to get her young son an education amid criminal and social injustice in China. Actually, it wasn't just about China but almost all the prostitutes were caught in the same vortex all over the world. The society had a clear mindset of not accepting the prostitute which was fair but not accepting her child whom she wants to make a good man was completely unfair. I am glad to know that someone like Wu Yonggang broke the silence on it in early 30s and set the trend of path-breaking and thought-provoking cinema that too in an industry like China where the sensitivity of this subject was damn too high. The Goddess is not just a powerful writing but also a highly emotional drama which will leave you teary-eyed for sure assuming that you understand the love and sacrifice of a mother for her child. Apart from that, you get to see one of finest performance by any Chinese actress of that time performed by Ruan Lingyu. The cinematic sense of director Wu Yonggang was matchless. He crafted the vulgar character without showing any offensive content, rather he kept it very audience friendly for all ages, including underage audience. Overall, The Goddess is a Must Watch for everyone who has ever loved his mother and for cinema lovers it has a terrific and daring content which was nothing short of trendsetter. Indeed, One of the most important film from Golden age of Chinese Cinema.

RATING - 8/10*

By - #samthebestest

The Goddess (Lingyu Ruan) works the Shanghai street as a prostitute to raise her beloved son. She falls under the control of The Boss. She tries to escape the life but she is pushed back in. He's an illiterate sadistic brute who even pretends to sell her son to put her in fear. Her son is ostracized by the other kids and she uses her hard earned money to pay for an education. The other parents find out and try to get him expelled. The elderly principal struggles to let him stay but he is unsuccessful. The boss steals the money she had hidden away.

This is a throughly modern movie. It's a silent movie from China. The lead actress is terrific. It is such a downtrodden portrayal. It's also amazing to see Shanghai during its 30s Golden Age. This is a treasure of a time gone by.

As an ancient Chinese poet has mentioned before, "it is even mesmerizing to be silent rather than with sound"... this is what i would like to quote here to describe the feeling when i was watching " Shennv".

A quite simple plot, but truly a heartbreak story...Even though it is not a talkie, no background music( the VCD version i watched), no color, but her splendid acting already captured my heart, the way she express the sorrow and the ambivalent being a wonderful mother and a depressed prostitute is simply captivating...I am wandering how a young actress (she should be 24 at that time), without any formal education of performing art, will able to achieve such a superb and impressive acting skills...no doubt she has become one of the screen legend in cinema history...

it is no doubt a genuine classics in Chinese silent cinema, worth watching...

This silent film comes from the "social conscious" school of Chinese filmmakers of the mid-thirties and deals with the problems facing a single mother who has slipped into a life of prostitution, partly from a desire to maintain her child. It's very much of a "studio" film, with few exteriors and rather limited sets.

Despite some melodramatic aspects of the story, the acting is quite well-done. In fact the primary interest of the film is due to the sensitive and luminescent performance of the star, Ruan Lingyu. Since the story concerns the plight of a woman (and her child) who suffers from scornful remarks made by those around her, there is an extra element of interest associated with the fact that Ruan Lingyu committed suicide shortly after making this film, apparently because of malicious gossip made about her private life.

Technically, the film features some inventive camera work, considering the mundane sets. The editing, however, is not first-rate, with numerous jump cuts and camera-axis crossings. Another surprising element is the text length of some of the titles. Many of the titles seem unnecessarily long.

In any case, the film is carried along by the emotive performance of Ruan Lingyu. This film is well worth seeing.

Absolutely remarkable to me for two reasons:

1. The performance from Ruan Lingyu; she's brilliant in how she carries her body, uses her gestures, and evokes such emotion from her expressions. It's an all-time great performance, and heartbreaking that she would be dead just three months after its premiere.

2. The extraordinary humanity of the film's sympathy to the main character, a prostitute. From the very beginning the film refers to her as someone with "great moral character" despite her profession. It doesn't try to create a justification for why she works the streets, nor does it try to titillate the viewer with suggestive scenes of her encounters. The character isn't cheapened in any way, nor is she given fantasy characteristics to her tricks ala the "hooker with a heart of gold" trope. She's just a mother trying to give her child a better life. The real immoral people include the man who preys on her, and the judgmental parents at her son's school, who can't just leave her alone. What a beautiful moment it is when the principal stands up for her, saying this: "This is the result of a broader social problem. We can't fault her moral character, much less the child's." I was blown away (1934!), and thought it was head and shoulders above other films that deal with this subject matter.

While those are the stellar aspects to me, Zhang Zhizhi is deserving of note for a great performance as the heavy - he is truly menacing. Director Wu Yonggang also serves up great camera angles and tight shots on Ruan Lingyu, all of which heighten the emotion of the story. Overall, brilliant, and definitely one to seek out.