new DVD of Chinese silents

[Caleb Kennedy]

Cinema Epoch has put out another DVD this month with two Chinese silents -
Two Stars in the Milky Way (1931) is about a young singer who enters the
movies and falls in love with a leading actor - unfortunately, another woman
is in the way.... This movie is elegant, slow-paced, and rather dull; not a
whole lot happens. It's mainly of interest for showing a film crew at work
as they shoot a film, although the 'behind-the-scenes' look at the Chinese
film industry is quickly abandoned. It was originally something of a
musical, and there are several interludes where people stop to sing, listen
to singing, or dance - however, the original soundtrack is gone, and instead
we have a modern music soundtrack covering everything, so the digressions
are doubly exasperating.
A Spray of Plum Blossoms (1931) is, unbelievably, a version of Shakespeare's
Two Gentlemen of Verona that follows the play very closely. It must be the
first film adaptation of this play I've seen, although I'd hoped there would
be other interesting things about it. But it wasn't very compelling for me.
The print is not so good on this one, sometimes too glaringly bright to
watch, sometimes going out of focus.
Both these films are very 'western' in style; Two Stars in particular often
seems like a generic American movie that happens to have Chinese actors.
Both these films have English titles in the original prints, which makes me
wonder if they weren't partially aimed at the western market. They're both
also available as cheap Chinese imports, with the English titles of course.
Caleb