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A comparison between the old and the new.

Audience needs to know a little contemporary Chinese history first: Shanghai is and was the largest city in China, and it is and was the richest city in China also. Shanghai was one of first Chinese cities opened up to the west and foreign capitals made it most economically advanced place in China. The 1920's and 1930's are the golden era of Shanghai and its booming economy is consisted of both the modern and the traditional (which lasted hundreds of years), and this movie is made to compare the old and new, not only in economical aspect, but also more importantly, in the social aspect.


Xinjiu Shanghai (1936) is one of the earliest chinese satiric comedy, directed by Cheng Bugao (1893--1966), Screenplay is writed by famous leftist writer Hong Shen. Cheng Bugao is the first chinese realism film master, his status in chinese cinema is similar to Jean Renoir in french cinema. In 1932, he directed "Torrents", cooperate with Xia Yan, "Torrents" is the first chinese leftist film ever made. In 1933, he made Mao Dun's literature classic "Spring Silkworms", which be considered "The greatest realism cinema masterpiece of china.". This one is also his best work in Shanghai Mingxin film studio.

This film is also a tvrip subbed chinese, maybe it's a problem for you understand the theme, but I still recommend you shouldn't miss it, for 1th, there're not many early chinese films you can find nowadays, between 1910-1949, chinese film pioneers made nearly 4000 movies, but not more than 400 were survived in today, most of them including many original documentaries and avantgarde films were burnt down in the war and culture revolution; yet among those 400 films only about 140 had ever been restored in china. This is the biggest sorrow of china cinema; for 2th, in this film you will see some unique old shanghai scenes which already disappeared today, like lane, stonehouse door...besides, the excellent long-shots and moving montages in this film are very typical realism film language, yet this exquisite cinematography has vanished in today's chinese movies.

Cheng.Bugao.-.New.and.Old.Shanghai.-.Shanghai.d'hier.et.d'aujourd'hui.(1936).TVrip.sub.Chinese.avi

Cheng.Bugao.-.New.and.Old.Shanghai.(1936).en.simple.subs.srt