Le Chant de minuit

This is artistically a well made and good looking movie but due to its different techniques and approach being used, that's different from the western way of film-making, this movie is also a hard one to watch in parts.

The first halve of the movie is mostly hard to follow. Basically all you see are people walking around and talking. It's often hard to fully understand what is going on and were the movie and its story is heading to. It however soon becomes obvious that this is a movie that is based on the well known Gaston Leroux novel; The Phantom of the Opera. But no, you can't really regard this movie as a Chinese version of The Phantom of the Opera. It's more a reinterpretation of the novel and it picks some different angles with its story.

This is a fairly unknown and rare early Chinese production and also very little about this film is actually known. It nevertheless is listed at many places as you movie you simply have to see and I can understand why, even though this movie is not completely a successful one really as a movie.

Time has not always been kind to this movie and some of the movie its quality has been lost. The quality and used techniques of this movie makes the movie seem older than it in fact really is. I'm not only talking about the types of camera's being used by also the editing, camera positioning and overall directing style. Also the music and sound often doesn't sound right and seems out of place and as if it got added in a much later stage. movie got made in the '30's, it looks more like it had been made 20 years before that. Asian movies in general often look older than they really are due to its techniques. It's for instance also the reason why most Akira Kurosawa movies look as if they were made in the '30's, while in fact they were made in the '50's. Of course this has changed, since the world now is much smaller.

The second halve of the movie is definitely the best when it mixes its (romantic) drama with horror elements. The movie and its story then soon starts to get truly powerful and the movie becomes an even bigger pleasure to watch.

It was already a pleasure to watch this movie due to its visual look, even though time hadn't been kind on the overall quality of the movie. It using fine, almost at times expressionistic looking sets, which probably had more to do with the budget restrictions of the movie. The movie is artistically more interesting to watch than movie-wise really.

It's acting is obviously over-the-top and also one of the reasons why this movie is more outdated looking and feeling than it's 1937 release date would suggest. The actors obviously weren't movie actors but who can blame them, since in the '30's China there of course really wasn't a movie industry. It also got made in the same year as the second Sino-Japanese war started between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan, though there already had been some fighting going on between those two, years before the actual war started, so no big surprise really that this movie got made with limited resources and both cast & crew involved obviously didn't had much experience yet in the movie business, though director Weibang Ma-Xu on a very regular basis, had been making movies since 1926 on and continued to do so till his early death in 1961.

It's an interesting movie to watch.

8/10

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If I'm being truthful, the performances in this are not the main selling point. Some/many of them are from performers I'd assume all came from the Theater which is fine except for nearly every moment being played for people far in the cheap seats. Big isn't a negative for the film, and the main performance by the title character Song (a magnificent double meaning for that word in the title)rather that every voice is pitched for the utmost Melodrama - and what else is more melo/operatic than Phantom of the Opera itself. It's the ultimate Romantic Feel-Bad saga, and I wouldn't expect a good version of this to not have emotional punch.

What is important here and why I suspect this is still seen today and wound up on the 1001 Movies to See Before You Wind Up in the Rafters of a Theater Haunting the Love of Your Life is because Ma-Xu's direction is so over powering. This Song-Phantom has wretched make-up that the filmmakers show as this large mass of lumps and crevices (Wade Wilson would feel better about himself to a degree), and the imagery is loaded with portent and sadness and Gothic ennui. There have been more phenomenal (Phantom of the Paradise, more iconic (the 1925 Chaney one) and lesser (the 1943 Universal Studios) versions of the story, but this is the one where the fog and smoke is thick and plot matters less than feeling.

This is a world depicted as a scary place, overloaded with Eastern mysticism and all that "Your Spirit Isn't Gone From This Plane" portent, even before Song gets that acid thrown in his face but especially in the second half of the film, and the control over keeping us locked into a shot, how he has the actors move so in spaces, sometimes like in a trance, is terrific (look when the woman goes ever so gradually to the windows and sees the mysterious man in the back... whoa). The power of the film manages to come through a fair to middling DVD transfer; this seems like a prime title for a boutique company- if not Criterion, which would seem natural, than Cinematographe- to do a blu ray restoration.

Song At Midnight (1937): Brief Review -

China's first horror-musical is truly an iconic film and a great love story. As the word is out there, this film is based on the famous "The Phantom of the Opera" by Gaston Leroux and also borrows some elements from "The Hunchback of Notre Dame." Since I have seen both of these movies (silent and talkie) and now this Chinese flick, I believe I am in a position to make some vivid statements that might not align with these myths. I'd like to disagree with the notion that this film is inspired by the aforementioned movies. "Song At Midnight" features the Phantom, but he is neither in love with the Prima Donna nor is he the villain of the story. He has a macabre face, but the character hardly resembles the plots of "Hunchback" or "Phantom." "Song At Midnight" is very original in its own right and also explores serious topics like revolution and its ideals in the horror-musical genre, something I don't think any films of this genre or sub-genre attempted at the time (or even today? Do we really have anything like this? If yes, let me know). So it's not just a great horror musical; it is also a great drama that was ahead of its time. And did I mention the classic tragedy and classic romance yet? Oh buddy, you are in for too much at once, especially from a Chinese film made in 1937. I was feeling exactly the same while watching the film-that it contained too much content for one movie, even for an American or German film, and then I had to remind myself that it was from China. Truly unbelievable! The footage and sound quality may be lacking, but one must consider the contemporary filmmaking in China, which was quite similar to that in India, and observe how they handled multiple genres like horror, romance, musical, and tragedy together. Absolutely top-class for its time and story-wise timeless even today. I don't think anyone can match it, even now. Multiple remakes exist for the same reason, but the OG remains untouched.

RATING - 8/10*

By - #samthebestest.

The most immediate drawback to this film is the dialogue. At times it's extremely stiff and stilted, or at least the translation is. But it's still a rather remarkable film for for it's time. Try to get past the whole "Phantom of the Opera in Chinese" thing. If you can get beyond that, and watch the film for what it is in its own right, I think it's far more enjoyable. The interplay between light and shadow in the setting is really interesting, and probably more interesting than the plot itself. It's also amazing how Westernized this is for a Chinese film, from the music in the score to the wardrobe, and really to the action scenes at the end of the movie.

It would be nice to see Weibang Ma-Xu's other films. He was a busy director logging up credits till the sixties. This is his film which got most attention, though Chinese intellectuals were apparently dismissive of it. Now that the circulation of mainland DVDs has made the pre-WW2 Shanghai films accessible, SONG AT MIDNIGHT turns up in a battered but watchable copy and is unusually intriguing.

Even without sub-titles, the story can be followed. Viewers are helped by familiarity with the "Phantom of the Opera" origins and Ronny Yu's accomplished re-make which drew on another half century of technique and a bigger budget. You can also see the influence of the Lugosi Dracula here but this is a much better film.

The plot has a traveling operetta company arrive at the run down provincial theatre. Their juvenile is having problems but he is coached to triumph by a mysterious hooded figure, who a flash back reveals is a star disfigured by the local power cartel, when he romanced the daughter of an influential family. The young performer sings under the window of the phantom's old love now deranged, who takes him for her former lover. When his old nemesis menaces the ingénue of the company, the Phantom attacks him and is burned in a tower building by an angry mob. This is not a film that coasts on subtlety.

The film making, while not polished, gets by and is full of imaginative touches and striking images. The actor playing the phantom was thought of as one of the country's best at the time and it is interesting to see his work here.

This is certainly more entertaining than much of the more purposeful work that makes it into critical histories. Anyone with a serious interest in film should seek it out.