Swordswoman of Huangjiang

Director: Chen Kengran, Zheng Yisheng, Shang Guanwu
Screenplay: Gu Mingdao
Cinematography: Yao Shiquan
Production Company: Youlian
Cast: Xu Qinfang, He Xhigang, Zheng Yisheng, Shang Guanwu
1930 | B&W | 83 min (Incomplete) | 35mm | Silent with Chinese & English Intertitles | Live music accompaniment

Martial arts films were enjoying great popularity as early as the 1920s, no doubt a continuation of public fondness for martial arts novels,  many films were turned into multi-chapter franchises, taking after both the tradition of lengthy Chinese novels and the serial form of early cinema in the West. Swordswoman of Huangjiang is the first chapter in a popular serial, based on a novel that was remade several times in the years to come. The beginning and the end are missing from this survived print, yet the exuberance of the genre is already evident, with various forms of special effects employed to visualize the fantastic nature of the martial arts imagination. (Shown with Labor's Love)

Screening Courtesy of the China Film Archive

The contents of the programme do not represent the views of the presenter.
The presenter reserves the right to change the programme should unavoidable circumstances make it necessary.