Two Stage Sisters (1964)

Original title

舞台姐妹

Directed by

Xie Jin

Cast

Mei Ting, Su Yan, He Sai Fei, Shi Yi Hong, Zhu Yin, Liu Jie

Genre

drama film

Country

People's Republic of China

Runtime

1h 54m

Rating

7.2 of 10 from 18 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

Two women train together as Yue opera performers in 1930s China. Their careers and personal paths diverge as one chooses comfort and the other pursues political ideals. The film follows them through wartime and revolution.

melodramatichistoricalpoignantbittersweetvisually lushearnestsocially consciousslow-burn

What happens

Two Stage Sisters is a 1964 Chinese drama film produced by Shanghai Tianma Film Studio and directed by Xie Jin, starring Xie Fang and Cao Yindi. Made just before the Cultural Revolution, it tells the story of two female Yue opera practitioners from the same troupe who end up taking very different paths in their lives: "one succumbs to bourgeois affluence and privilege, while the other finds inspiration and fulfilment in the social commitment associated with the May Fourth movement and the thought of Lu Xun." The film documents their journey through abusive feudal conditions in the countryside before achieving success and prestige on the stage, meanwhile historically following Shanghai's experience under Japanese and KMT rule. This original screenplay depicts the socio-political changes encompassing China from 1935 to 1950 (just after the founding of New China) through the theatrical world of Shaoxing, and accordingly mixes both a Chinese aesthetic with Hollywood and socialist realist forms. The main protagonist (Zhu Chunhua) is said to be based on the life of Xie Jin's friend and opera-veteran Yuan Xuefen. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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