Eternity (1943 film)
| Eternity | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Bu Wancang Ma-Xu Weibang Zhu Shilin |
| Written by | Zhou Yibai |
| Starring | Chen Yunshang |
Release date |
|
Running time | 96 minutes |
| Countries | China (occupied) Empire of Japan |
| Language | Mandarin Chinese |
Eternity (
Telling the story of
Cast
- Chen Yunshang as Zhang Jingxian
- Li Xianglan(Japanese name Yamaguchi Yoshiko)
- Gao Zhanfei as Lin Zexu
- Yuan Meiyun
- Wang Yin
Production history
In 1939, the Japanese had formed the China Movie Company ("Zhongdian") to make Japanese propaganda shorts. By 1941, Zhongdian signed a deal with the head of the Xinhua Film Company, Zhang Shankun, followed quickly by two other deals with the Yihua Film Company and the Guohua Film Company.[2]
Casting
The film was cast primarily with Chinese actors out of (what remained) of the Shanghai studio system (now under the control of Zhonglian). One major star cast, however, was the Manchuria-born Japanese actress Yoshiko Yamaguchi. Though she had already starred in several Chinese features under her Chinese name of Li Xianglan, Yamaguchi was a seeming outlier in the cast of Eternity. She was, therefore, an indication of the control the Japanese exercised over the Chinese film industry in Shanghai. (ref "Her Traces are Found Everywhere" 227, Shelly Stevenson, in Cinema and Urban Culture in Shanghai 1922-1943) Helped by the massive pop hits, "Candy-Peddling Song" (賣糖歌) and "Quitting (opium) Song" (戒煙歌), the film would catapult Li into stardom, as her earlier works had been in films so blatantly pro-Japanese, as to turn off most of the Chinese audience (Shelly, 227).
Notes
References
- Fu, Poshek "Resistance in Collaboration: Chinese Cinema in Occupied Shanghai" in Chinese Collaboration with Japan, 1932-1945: The Limits of Accommodation. David, Barrett P. ed. (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001)
- Yoshiko Yamaguchi. "Fragrant Orchid: The Story of My Early Life." Trans. Chia-ning Chang (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Pres, 2015)
