Zi mei hua
[Twin Sisters]
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Country: China
Year: 1934
Genre: Drama
Runtime: 1h 21mn
Language: Mandarin
Subtitles: English (srt)
Director: Zhengqiu Zheng
Cast:
Die Hu ... Da Bao, Er Bao
Xiaoqiu Zheng ... Tao Ge
Zhiyuan Tan ... Governor Qian
Jinglin Xuan ... Mother
Download Street Angel here
Two poor sisters are separated while very young. The father takes the more beautiful one, Er Bao, with him to Shanghai, because he's fleeing the law, while the other sister, Da Bao is left behind with the mother in the village to experience a life of hardship. Years later, Da Bao's husband is ill and cannot work. Da Bao is driven to moonlight as a wet nurse - a woman who breastfeeds the children of the rich. She goes to a rich woman's house when - surprise - the lady of the house is none other than Er Bao, who is now a snotty, spoiled general's wife. While working for Er Bao in the city, Da Bao receives word that her husband has now had a severe accident and cannot work. Realizing her family's lives are on the line, she asks Er Bao for a month's wages. Er Bao coldly refuses, and Da Bao resorts to stealing. But she gets caught, and accidentally pushes the woman who caught her a bit too hard. The woman stumbles on something, falls, and dies. Da Bao is taken to the magistrate's office for her crime, when - surprise - it turns out he is none other than her long lost father...
The plot is very good. The film makes a constant point about rich/poor and, later on, the status of women when Da Bao laments that, "Had I been beautiful too, then maybe I would have been the general's wife." The ending is a bit anti-climatic by our standards, since there is no big bang, really.
As others who have seen this film have noted, the ending is rather ambiguous, with seemingly nothing resolved other than the two sisters and their mother getting back together. That is because there was a sequel, "Zaisheng Hua" (Reborn Blossoms), which has not survived. The two parts were filmed together in 1933, then released as two movies in 1934 and 1935.
... when the sisters get back to the warlord's mansion, they learn that the warlord's spies have located the rebel forces mentioned in part one, and he has left with his army to launch a surprise attack. Then a new character shows up looking for Erbao, none other than the rebel commander. Toward the end of part one, Erbao mentions that she had once arranged a marriage for herself, but her father's own ambitions forced her to break it off and marry the warlord. Well, guess who the rebel commander is? Anyway, Erbao becomes much more of an activist in the sequel, helping the rebels overthrow the warlord and reuniting with her lost first love. Casting note: the rebel commander in the sequel was played by Dan Zhao, a newcomer at the time who became one of China's top stars in a career that lasted into the 1960s
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Technical Info:
General
Format : AVI
File size : 1.17 GiB
Duration : 1h 21mn
Overall bit rate : 2 072 Kbps
Video
Format : MPEG-4 Visual
Codec ID : XVID
Bit rate : 1 957 Kbps
Width : 672 pixels
Height : 448 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 3:2
Frame rate : 29.970 fps
Audio
Format : MPEG Audio
Codec ID/Hint : MP3
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 101 Kbps
Nominal bit rate : 128 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
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[Twin Sisters]
Country: China
Year: 1934
Genre: Drama
Runtime: 1h 21mn
Language: Mandarin
Subtitles: English (srt)
Director: Zhengqiu Zheng
Cast:
Die Hu ... Da Bao, Er Bao
Xiaoqiu Zheng ... Tao Ge
Zhiyuan Tan ... Governor Qian
Jinglin Xuan ... Mother
Download Street Angel here
Two poor sisters are separated while very young. The father takes the more beautiful one, Er Bao, with him to Shanghai, because he's fleeing the law, while the other sister, Da Bao is left behind with the mother in the village to experience a life of hardship. Years later, Da Bao's husband is ill and cannot work. Da Bao is driven to moonlight as a wet nurse - a woman who breastfeeds the children of the rich. She goes to a rich woman's house when - surprise - the lady of the house is none other than Er Bao, who is now a snotty, spoiled general's wife. While working for Er Bao in the city, Da Bao receives word that her husband has now had a severe accident and cannot work. Realizing her family's lives are on the line, she asks Er Bao for a month's wages. Er Bao coldly refuses, and Da Bao resorts to stealing. But she gets caught, and accidentally pushes the woman who caught her a bit too hard. The woman stumbles on something, falls, and dies. Da Bao is taken to the magistrate's office for her crime, when - surprise - it turns out he is none other than her long lost father...
The plot is very good. The film makes a constant point about rich/poor and, later on, the status of women when Da Bao laments that, "Had I been beautiful too, then maybe I would have been the general's wife." The ending is a bit anti-climatic by our standards, since there is no big bang, really.
As others who have seen this film have noted, the ending is rather ambiguous, with seemingly nothing resolved other than the two sisters and their mother getting back together. That is because there was a sequel, "Zaisheng Hua" (Reborn Blossoms), which has not survived. The two parts were filmed together in 1933, then released as two movies in 1934 and 1935.
... when the sisters get back to the warlord's mansion, they learn that the warlord's spies have located the rebel forces mentioned in part one, and he has left with his army to launch a surprise attack. Then a new character shows up looking for Erbao, none other than the rebel commander. Toward the end of part one, Erbao mentions that she had once arranged a marriage for herself, but her father's own ambitions forced her to break it off and marry the warlord. Well, guess who the rebel commander is? Anyway, Erbao becomes much more of an activist in the sequel, helping the rebels overthrow the warlord and reuniting with her lost first love. Casting note: the rebel commander in the sequel was played by Dan Zhao, a newcomer at the time who became one of China's top stars in a career that lasted into the 1960s
Technical Info:
General
Format : AVI
File size : 1.17 GiB
Duration : 1h 21mn
Overall bit rate : 2 072 Kbps
Video
Format : MPEG-4 Visual
Codec ID : XVID
Bit rate : 1 957 Kbps
Width : 672 pixels
Height : 448 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 3:2
Frame rate : 29.970 fps
Audio
Format : MPEG Audio
Codec ID/Hint : MP3
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 101 Kbps
Nominal bit rate : 128 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz