Oct 271937
 
two reels

An acting troop, including young lead Sun Xiaoou (Chau-Shui Yee) and his girlfriend Liu Die (Xu Manli), arrives at a dilapidated theater, and are greeted by only Zheng (Wang Weilyi), the guardian of the theater and a hunchback with a monstrous appearance, that no one ever mentions. They set to work on a new opera, but Sun has problems performing his song. He is helped by a mysterious voice that sings his part, which turns out to belong to Song Danping (Shan Jin), a star who supposedly died ten years ago. With the show a big success, Sun seeks out Song, who lives in the attic. Song then tells him of his life. He was a revolutionary, fighting the good fight for the people and to join the country together. But after three years he became disheartened and stopped fighting to join a theater company, where his incredible mastery of music took him quickly to the top. He was always afraid that his revolutionary activities would get him in trouble, but it turned out that old fashioned jealousy was his downfall. Song and a local rich girl Li Xiaoxia (Ping Hu) became lovers, but local tough Tung (Gu Menghe) wanted Li for himself, so he told her father that Song was a lowlife. Her father was an old fashioned elitist, who had connections with local warlords. He had Song whipped, but when this didn’t make Li fall for Tung (yes, Tung seemed to think that this would win her over… He’s not a bright guy) he threw nitric acid on Song, disfiguring his face and hands. Horrified by his appearance, he faked his death, which drove Li insane. She has stayed in her room all these years in a fugue state, and Song would sing to her at night to comfort her broken mind. But now, Song has a plan to save her, while Sun has his own plan, and neither of them realize that Tung is still around and owns the theater.

The Chinese critics in ’37 found this too Western of a film, which makes it easier for me to review, as it means I’m less likely to be missing some cultural differences in how we see film. Though perhaps they would find any horror too Western and this was China’s first horror film, inspired by The Phantom of the Opera, with a touch of Frankenstein thrown in at the end.

It is at times beautiful. Li walking between the columns as Sun sings is a mystical and romantic image. But as a whole it doesn’t work. The editing is a major problem, with many scenes running too long. Others not long enough. There are pauses when there shouldn’t be, and then jumps. The flashback goes on and on, both taking up too much time and moving  too slowly. The music is another flaw. Not the diegetic music. Song or Sun singing is always good, though a few pieces could be shortened. It’s the nondiegetic music. Cues from various Western symphonic music are roughly edited in, starting and stopping mid note, including Night on Bald Mountain and Rhapsody in Blue. To say they don’t fit would be an understatement.

I can’t blame writer/director Weibang Ma-Xu for the political content, much as I’d like to. In order to get the film past the censors, he had to add a theme of patriotic revolution, which included the struggle of the masses and for all Chinese to come together to fight off outsiders. It’s very odd when in the middle of a romantic scene, Song or Sun suddenly blurt out about the “struggle” and how we must always fight. Dude, she just wants you to hold her.

But the problem is larger. Song at Midnight is shot in the language and style of a silent film. Movements are too broad for something not further removed from reality. scenes are structured to tell the story visually, without dialog, and then we get a lot of dialog. You could cut 90% of the lines, and put the rest of intertitles, and you’d have a fine silent film. You’d want keep the diegetic songs, but that’s it. Not only could that have been done, it should have been. As is we get endless conversations, which tell us little to nothing, are performed poorly, and kill the pacing. Song at Midnight is worth seeing as an important moment in Chinese cinema, but not for its quality.