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6.8/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 6.8/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. Tianming remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
If you're into early 20th-century cinema or just want to see how Shanghai was portrayed back then, yeah, watch it. If you're looking for something lighthearted or a quick Saturday night popcorn flick, skip this. It's heavy, it's rough, and it doesn't give you any easy outs. Fans of movies like Nell Gwynne might find some familiar themes of women trying to survive in a man's world, though the tone here feels a lot colder.
Watching Ling Ling walk off that boat, you just know it's not going to end well. The city is filmed like it’s a giant, hungry machine. There’s this one shot of the Shanghai pier that lasts forever, just showing the scale of the place compared to her tiny frame.
The transition from village girl to socialite is brutal. There isn't much grace in how she gets there. It’s just one bad hand dealt after another. You can feel the director pushing the tragedy a bit too hard sometimes, almost like he’s trying to make sure you *really* understand how much she’s suffering.
It’s interesting to compare this to something like The Ladybird, which feels miles away in terms of stakes. Here, the stakes are just 'staying alive' and 'not losing your soul.' It’s not subtle. It’s not meant to be.
The pacing is… weird. Sometimes it zooms through years of trauma in five minutes. Other times, a single conversation at a table drags on until you’re counting the patterns on the wallpaper. I don't know if that was intentional or just how they cut it, but it made me restless. 🌊
Toward the end, when the revolution starts creeping into the background, the movie finally finds its footing. It stops being just a story about one woman's bad luck and starts feeling like a real historical document. It’s a bit messy, sure. But it’s human. And sometimes that’s enough to keep you watching until the final frame.