Scenes of City Life

Scenes of City Life is a 1935 Chinese comedy-drama film directed by Yuan Muzhi. It is also translated as Cityscape. It is noted for being the first film directed by Yuan, as well as the first film appearance of Jiang Qing (or Lan Ping, as she then called herself), who later became Mao Zedong's fourth wife. The film deals with themes of struggle under a capitalist system. It is a type of Shanghai film from the 1930s that were all involved in music, cinema, fashion, advertising, which contributed to the "Shanghai mystique". This film shares the style at that time with other movies like music, cinema, fashion and advertising which contributed to "Shanghai mystique" which embodied Shanghai's sophisticated pride.

Plot
Outside a station from New Village to Shanghai, families await its opening in anticipation of their travels. Bystanders sing praises of Shanghai, excited about the bustling city life. Li Menghua, Zhang Xiaoyun, and Xiaoyun’s parents look into a nearby peep show showcasing Shanghai’s city scenes. The film transitions into an imaginary Shanghai where they live out scenarios of their lives in the bustling city.

In this alternate reality, Li Menghua, now a writer for the local newspaper, is hopelessly in love with an uninterested Zhang Xiaoyun. He buys her presents to win her attention while barely able to pay his rent, and is hardly successful as she is also seeing Wang Junsan, an affluent owner of a tea business. Zhang Xiaoyun’s father, now a co-owner of a pawn shop, discusses their deteriorating finances with his wife as they struggle to pay their bills. Zhang Xiaoyun is disappointed when her father is unable to help her afford a new dress for her friend’s wedding, leading her to seek another way to obtain it.

Wang Junsan’s secret mistress visits him at his office. They discuss troubles with the tea business along with Wang Junsan’s secretary, who disapproves of his affair, and consider transitioning into gold speculation instead. Later, after an invitation for noodles at Zhang Xiaoyun’s house, Wang Junsan and his secretary shower her with gifts while discussing business and family matters. Zhang Xiaoyun and Wang Junsan’s secretary eventually find themselves alone at a café as Wang Junsan spends time with his mistress, pretending it is a business meeting. Zhang Xiaoyun, pretending to offer to pay for their meal, feigns losing her wallet and coerces Wang Junsan’s assistant into buying her the luxurious dress she wanted for her friend’s wedding. Meanwhile, her father fruitlessly negotiates with other failing pawn shops and his own shop’s co-owner to barter the funds needed for the dress. He instead comes home with gifts he has traded for, which his family rejects, disappointed by the lack of actual money.

Li Menghua, after selling a love letter he wrote to Zhang Xiaoyun to the local newspaper, decides to use the funds to take her to a dance. They run into Wang Junsan and his assistant there. Disappointed in Zhang Xiaoyun’s eagerness to see them instead of him, Li Menghua leaves. After drinks and flirtatious exchanges, Zhang Xiaoyun goes home with Wang Junsan. She frequently sees him, even late at night, and is caught sneaking out by her father, who later insists to Wang Junsan that they get married, given he professed his loyalty to her. Overhearing the conversation, Li Menghua confronts Zhang Xiaoyun. After a fierce exchange where she tells him to leave her, Li Menghua writes to her, threatening to kill himself. Zhang Xiaoyun, believing his bluff, finds him feigning a bedridden state and regretfully apologizes. Li Menghua uses this opportunity to win her back by giving her many love letters he has written, but she turns down his deceitful attempt and angrily leaves him for good. Devastated, he swallows a fatal dose of sleeping pills but is saved by the hospital.

At the year's end, during annual debt collection, Wang Junsan is pressured by Zhang Xiaoyun’s father for financial aid, his mistress for money, his secretary for unpaid wages, and others to whom he owes debt. In the midst of this turbulent time, his assistant, annoyed by Wang Junsan’s infidelity and debt issues, develops a connection with Ahxiang, the family maid of Zhang Xiaoyun. They plan to take some belongings of Zhang Xiaoyun’s family and run away together. Meanwhile, the broke and depressed Li Menghua escapes the hospital and wanders the streets of Shanghai in torn and tattered clothes, walking tiredly to an unknown fate. Wang Junsan returns to a ransacked house and decides to also run away after stealing whatever jewelry and money he can find. He leaves in his car, unknowingly hiding his secretary and Ahxiang in the trunk, and is chased by Zhang Xiaoyun and her father into a bustling scene of Shanghai. The film transitions back to the train station at the beginning, where Li Menghua, Zhang Xiaoyun, and her parents scramble to figure out which train to board and end up not boarding any of them.

Cast

 * Bai Lu as the Maidservant
 * Lan Ping (Jiang Qing)
 * Tang Na as Li Menghua
 * Wu Yin as Zhang Xiaoyun's Mother
 * Zhou Boxun as Zhang Xiaoyun's Father
 * Wu Yinxian
 * Zhang Xinzhu as Zhang Xiaoyun
 * He Menghe as Wang Junsan
 * Cai Ruohong as Wang Junsan's Secretary
 * Yuan Muzhi as the Peep Show Operator
 * Feng Sizhi as the Accountant
 * Fan Bozi as the Station Master
 * Zhang Huitong as the Comprador
 * Lin Huishu as the landlady
 * Li Yifei as a Shop clerk

Themes
A major theme of the film is the struggle of everyday people living under a capitalist system. For example, the film portrays the difficulties of various businesses in a period of economic turmoil. Pawn shops are shown to constantly take in goods but are never able to sell with their very few buyers. People, desperate for money, are shown to resort to pawning off their goods to afford necessities. This juxtaposes the presence of affluent people in luxurious cars even in economically turbulent times, highlighting the wage gaps and rampant consumerism characteristic of a materialistic capitalist society. In another scene, they walk around the storefronts of pawn shops, and the store attendants struggle to fathom how they are able to stay so wealthy while they struggle. This theme is an intentional reflection of the social and economic status of Urban Shanghai in the 1930s, as the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, the Shanghai January 28 incident, and general social unrest contributed to an economic depression in China leading into the following decade. Filmmakers were especially affected due to a declining film industry’s financial difficulties leaving them with hardly any salary, subsequently shaping the themes surrounding financial struggle present in many films throughout this era. Another major theme is the way that people will create their own circumstances. As a slapstick, it shows how people have been caught up in their own follies. This theme is demonstrated by the many contradictions in various characters’ actions. For example, the businessman Wang Junsan is the owner of a tea company, but ironically does not even know the difference between the different types of tea his company sells. He is very wealthy as a result of his business, but in reality, knows very little of what it actually does. Furthermore, this is shown in another instance of a pawnshop employee who steals from his own store. This reflects the contradiction of how characters in the film present themselves to others while acting in ways that contradict their responsibilities, eventually leading them into difficult situations, and shows how the culture of Shanghai in the 1930s was consumerist and materialistic to the point that people get themselves into trouble.

Production
Regarded as the first musical comedy in the history of Chinese cinema, Scenes of City Life was aptly described by critics as a "hundred percent new-style musical comedy" .The film was monumental for its innovative cinematic technique in utilizing both sound and image, marking a milestone in Chinse cinematic history. It was also the first Chinese film with its own music that were specifically written for the film through a three-way cooperation of three eminent composers: Yuanren Zhao, Zi Huang and Lüting He.

Despite its comedic and musical elements, the film presents a satire on the socio-economic conditions of Shanghai in the 1930s. It demonstrates leftist agenda through the struggles in a rapidly modernizing urban environment and subtly hinting collective action as the solution. The real locations showing the crowded streets of Shanghai as well as scenes depicting the impact of financial crisis and the living conditions of the lower class serve to reinforce the conflict between the social classes in the period.

Chinese film makers in the 1930s, including the cast of Scenes of City Life, faced severe financial difficulties, struggled with low wages and unstable employment. Many filmmakers lived in cramped quarters like tingzijian. Although these environments were unpleasant and ill to live in, it did aid in fostering a creative and collaborative atmosphere which influenced their cinematic techniques: strong sensitivity to space and acoustic. Although The production of Scenes of City Life was marked by significant challenges, the film emerged as a groundbreaking work in Chinese cinematic history which pioneered the genres of musical comedy.

Reception
When the film was released in 1935, it was well received by the Chinese audience and was considered a success. They were impressed by its “fresh, musical comedic style”. Critics praised its innovativeness, calling it a “hundred percent new-style musical comedy”. The film appealed to the audiences as it depicted the challenges of urban living which appealed to the working class as they saw them selves represented. The success in both the entertainment and socio-political commentary, however, did end up attracting censorships which hindered its distribution.

Sound Effect
Early discussions of the film were often focused on its use of “mickey-mousing”, a technique where sound effects mimic on-screen actions which create a comic effect similar to early Mickey Mouse cartoons. This focus on “mickey-mousing” resulted in more advanced and sophisticated techniques to be overshadowed. The film analyst Jingyi Zhang breaks down the dimensions of sound use in the film into four aspects; the blurring of diegetic and non-diegetic sounds, finding “noise musicality” among the sounds made by the working class, rendering of the city noises, and the sounds made by the materialist dreaming. For example, in the beginning of the film there is music heard that is non-diegetic, and it is assumed that it is part of the soundtrack of the film. The camera then pans to show musicians playing the music, bringing it into being a diegetic sound and part of the soundscape within the scene. Furthermore, the innovative aspect of “noise-musicality”, where everyday noises and speech patterns are transformed into rhythmic and musical elements, greatly enhances the film’s satirical tone. This technique reflects the character’s absurdity and pokes fun at societal norms. Lastly the theme song,  “City Scenes Fantasia '', merges traditional Chinese melodies with Western influences and reflects Shanghai’s cosmopolitan nature and serves as a primary example of city symphony film sequence in early Chinese cinema.