Rent The Goddess (1934)
4.0 of 5 from 65 ratings
1h 18min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- Ruan Lingyu, one of the most famous stars of early Chinese cinema, gives a devastating performance as an unnamed 'goddess' - an ironic euphemism for a prostitute - in this profoundly moving but rarely seen classic of world cinema. In a tragic tale of shame and maternal sacrifice, Ruan stars as a mother desperate to provide for her young son and forced to take brutal vengeance on her pimp. It is a profoundly moving drama made all the more poignant by the knowledge that its star took her own life at the age of 24, a year after the film's release.
- Actors:
- Lingyu Ruan, Tian Jian, Zhizhi Zhang, Keng Li, Junpan Li, Huaiqiu Tang
- Directors:
- Yonggang Wu
- Producers:
- Richard J. Meyer, Minwei Tian
- Writers:
- Yonggang Wu
- Aka:
- Shen nu
- Studio:
- BFI Video
- Genres:
- Classics, Drama
- Countries:
- China
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Reviews (1) of The Goddess
Neo-realism before neo-realism - The Goddess review by ML
Perhaps like me you admire the Neo-realist cinema of post war Italy, which depicts the harsh realities of life for the poor. Vittorio De Sica's "The Bicycle Thieves" is a lovely film, but one might find it a bit sentimental once one has seen Visconti's "La Terra Trema" (both films are from 1948). But fourteen years earlier, there was this movie, made and set in Shanghai of 1934. A radiant Ruan Ling-yu takes the title role: by day, a devoted single mother, by night, a prostitute - euphemistically referred to in China at the time as shennü, or Goddess.
The first half is a really hard watch, as The Goddess falls into the clutches of a small time thug who becomes her pimp, gambling away her earnings. Things lighten in the second half when she decides to send her son to school where there is a kindly headteacher, but only temporarily, and there's no happy ending.
This is a great film, and it's easy to see why some people called Ruan Ling-yu "the Garbo of the East".
P.S. Despite the year, the film is silent as China was slow to switch to talking pictures because of the multiplicity of languages in China.
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