Wu Yonggang's 1934 Film, the Goddess

The social themes addressed in Wu Yonggang's 1934 film, The Goddess are not approached in a subtle manner. The messages are clear and an obvious social criticism within the story of a woman who is victim of circumstance. Though, Ruan Lingyu's character as the Goddess is approached with a delicate finesse. As a prostitute mother she challenges tolerance within the educational institution and reinforces the gender roles of early 1930s China. The story still holds relevance today where a similar drama played out in California headlines. A schoolteacher caught posing nude in magazines was fired and ridiculed nation-wide despite her numerous attempts to save face. With this in mind, it can be said that The Goddess addresses universal themes.

As a loving mother, the Goddess (Lingyu) exemplifies a strong independent woman who in such a period of history was probably considered unusual. Her independent spirit is also a subtle touch of Yonggang's storytelling as one must look deeply into her character to see that it is her only guard against her oppressors. This hidden ferocity is bottled up, contained in many a scene's enclosed spaces and close ups of Lingyu. In her final moments of the film, at first seeming to be a triumph against her abusive boyfriend, her rage bubbles over self-destructively. It becomes the system's final blow to her as what the viewer witnesses as self-defense, but is actualized as a charge of murder to a judge.

In the final scene, shots of the son's schoolteacher visiting the Goddess in prison capture her complete state of being. A long shot framed behind the bars of a window peering into the room encapsulate the two people we sympathize with. The camera traps them within the institutional setting as if to say they have no way out. Again all that survives and gives hope to the characters is their independent spirit, which as a central theme is a comment on individualism in society, especially in Asia. Both these characters rub against the grain of society as the system fails them and are either trapped by the institution or abandon it.

Their independence is the will to rely on oneself beyond the confines of a system that is influenced by narrow social perspectives. Mainly it is the other parents at the school where the Goddess' son attends who cannot see beyond her profession as streetwalker. There is also her illiterate boyfriend who claims education can get the son no further in life then he has gotten without it. The relationship of the boyfriend to the Goddess is beautifully displayed in a shot of Lingyu kneeling on the ground framed underneath his legs dominating the upper half of the screen. He powers over her by influencing her personal affairs and she submits as if helpless. Her only stance against him is taken when she defends his criticisms of education and in her final revolt, both directly a mother's defense of her son.

At once, this message in the film shows us that education is the key to a child's future, yet even in that system the institution will stifle what the majority deems unacceptable. The schoolteacher embodies this dual message as a character representing the school and also that the institution is hopeless. As a compassionate figure to her outcast son he eventually stands up for the Goddess, but is denied by a system influenced by social stereotypes. He is the only glimmer of hope for the Goddess's son and must take him under his own care, reinforcing his independent spirit.

Most of the film is visually carried by close up shots of Ruan Lingyu, as in the film's final shot. Her emotion fully displays this journey of maintaining individualism against all odds in a system unsympathetic to her situation. The singular close up captures an expression of defeat, as she stands separated from her son behind bars then to a look of hope with tears of joy for the schoolteacher, then back to the misery of her loneliness. Lingyu's powerful depiction of an archetypal woman is mastered in this one sweeping emotion as it recaps her rise and fall throughout the film.

More on Chinese Cinema:
Personal Revolutions from China's 5th Generation Filmmakers, by Jason Cangialosi