The Goddess

Ah, the silver screen. Silent film. Shanghai cinema. Exploitation films. Social issues. Good stuff.

Interesting irony here. The main character, played by Ruan Lingyu, is trying to raise her kid and make a living as a prostitute at the same time.  She tries to find other work, but can't get out of the racket, for a number of reasons.  The other kids won't play with her son because his mother is a prostitute (slightly questionable given that one out of six women in Shanghai at the time were "in the industry"). She wants her kid to have a better live so she squirrels money a way to put him into a school. But the school kicks him out because of the questionable career undertaken by the mother.  Shame, shame, it's all about shame.

A year after the film was made, Ruan Lingyu killed herself, the tabloid press had been all over her private life, some affair she was accused of having with some guy.  The shame, the shame.

People should just relax, don't you think?  I'm glad I don't live in a culture that's so driven by peer-perceptions, where there's at least some appreciation for going against the grain.

Comments

[haynes-linda@att.net]

Kevin my dear,

This is so timely, your review of "The Goddess"and your comments on shame, which I must say are spot on,right!
Timely because Kathy and I were just discussing the book "Daring Greatly" by Ernee Brown, and the theme of this book was Shame and Vulnerability,and how we should not let shame rule our life, as it often tries to do, but instead we should allow ourselves to be vulnerable.
and oh how well you wrote this piece and tied the plot of the movie and the real life actress's life and suicide together, oh me!
it is a complicated subject as sometimes we should be ashamed of what we do, but in the case of this movie and this actress, I agree with you, no shame necessary.
yep! that's what I think too!

your faithful reader,
Linda