'Two Stage Sisters': Xie Jin’s 1965 Drama in 2009 NYFF

The New York Film Festival¹ opened yesterday at the Lincoln Center offering a wide variety of films in exhibition including a handful from Asia:

Independencia
Raya Martin, 2009, Philippines/France/Germany/Netherlands, 77m
Sun. Oct. 4: 3PM

Mother
Bong Joon-Ho, 2009, South Korea, 129m
Fri. Oct. 9: 6 | Sat. Oct. 10: NOON

Kanikosen
Sabu, 2009, Japan, 109m
Sun. Sep. 27: 11:30AM | Mon. Sep. 28: 6PM

Ghost Town
Zhao Dayong, 2008, China, 169m
Sun. Sep. 27: 2:15PM

Crossroads of Youth
An Jong-hwa, 1934, Korea, 74m
Sat. Oct. 3: 11AM

In conjunction with the film festival is “Masterworks: (Re)Inventing China A New Cinema for a New Society, 1949-1966”, a series of 20 films from China released at the time between the Communist victory and the start of the Cultural Revolution.

In his column today in the New York Times, Mike Hale focuses on the main attraction of the series, Two Stage Sisters (Wutai Jiemei).²

Some of the films available for preview were as heavy-handed as you might expect of work made under rigid state control. But “Two Stage Sisters,” which is being shown on Saturday and on Oct. 6, is unexpectedly fluid and subtle, with emotions that ring true. It’s also a sweeping, ambitious narrative that moves from the provinces to the theater district of Shanghai and back again. Some cramped staging may reflect a lack of resources, but Mr. Xie’s technical assurance and the overall level of the acting are the equal of at least a modest Hollywood drama of the 1950s or ’60s.

While the 1965 film is laced with latent Communist propaganda, the Cultural Revolution landed filmmaker Xie Jin in jail and his film was banned for its "bourgeois" content.  That by itself makes it worth seeing, and how artistic expression has survived the political turmoil and pressures of that time.

¹The Film Society of Lincoln Center
²Mike Hale, “Two ‘Sisters’ From Time of Mao Star Again”, The New York Times, Sept. 26, 2009