March 29th, 7:00PM in Garland 104 (2441 E. Hartford)
The complexity of Chinese silent cinema remains little known in or outside of China. This is truly a shame. In its themes and technical sophistication is was a match for Hollywood or Germany, if initially somewhat less prolific. Few films demonstrate the richness of themes better than Two Stars in the Milky Way (1931.) It is a film about film making, but it focused as much on a discussion of the societal responsibility of the art as it did on a pure expose on the medium.
Superstar Violet Wong plays a young woman from a conservative family who encounters a group of film makers conducting location shooting. She catches their eye, or rather their ears and if offered entry into the heady world of Shanghai cinema in all of its art deco glory. Despite a predictable pattern of events involving her exposure to the excesses of the city and its modern age, the film asks meaningful questions about how Chinese intellectuals viewed the arts at this formative period.
China, Director Tomsie Sze, Cast Violet Wong, Yeh Chuen Chuen, V.K. Chung and Kao Chien Fei, 86 minutes, Silent with English and Traditional Chinese inter-titles
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