User:Anna.gking/Xie Jin

Two Stage Sisters
Xie Jin’s films focus on oppressed, modernesque women who must struggle to make change and grip with their reality in a way that inspires cultural revolution. Xie Jin explores the representation of women in socialist cinema as artists, teachers, and struggling, poor class who experience oppression and exploitation at the hands of the KMT, aristocrats, and other men. Two Stage Sisters focuses exclusively on the lives of women in theatre with subtle narration and themes before the PRC halted the production and exhibition of certain films followed by their censorship and correct screenings. Originating in Shaoxing, the theatre troupe featured in Two Stage Sisters is made up of all female performers, influenced by the female troupes of Shaoxing in the same period and changing revolutionary climate. Xie Jin remarked in an interview he "was impressed by the precise and vivid storytelling of Pingtan [storytelling and ballad singing in Suzhou dialect] and the finesse in how Szechuan and Shaoxing operas treated characters" Shaoxing being his inspiration regarding the film's all-female troupe.

Significant relationships are represented between women, between the Stage Sisters themselves, Chunhua (played by Xie Fang) and Yuehong (played by Cao Yindi), between Chunhua and Shang Shuihua (played by Shangguan Yunzhu), the ex-star of the Shanghai opera, and Chunhua and Jiang Bo (played by Gao Aisheng), a reporter committed to the truth. Chunhua is an escaped child bride to rising star with leftist values, representing good class while Yuehong sought out a richer class but never portrayed as the "villainess" but the victim until the end, causing their relationship to come under criticism for suggesting "class reconciliation". Jiang Bo is also a reporter refusing to allow Yuehong be the scapegoat and uncover political truth, and reveal the truth of Shang Shuihua's suicide; "trying to uncover how women become opera queens". Similarly, Chunhua refuses to let her sister take the blame for her assault and refuses to let Shuihua fade into the background. Xie Jin uses these relationships to display the significance of "young/old", "male/female", "city/country" relationships, of which Xie Jin uses Chunhua as a connecter of each complex relationship.

Chunhua herself is inspired by an opera singer friend of Xie Jin, Yuan Xuefen.

It should be noted Xie Jin couldn't finish Two Stage Sister the way he wanted it to end, or it be shown to audiences until the 1970s as it was labelled poisonous weed (ducao). Jiang Qing, Mao Zedong's wife and head of the "Gang of Four" had a very particular view of how revolutionary films should be. Xie Jin has said he was forced to change the script, admitting that the first part of TWO STAGE SISTERS seems more or less well done, but the second part seems weak .“Ducao”, also known as “Two-Stage Sisters” is a film created during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. He was once criticized in a big gathering attended by over 100,000 people because of the way that he promoted pushing social class reconciliation. This film was shadowbanned and unseen by the major public until 1979. This film shows the dependency of women on men during that time era.

The reason why the movie is called "Du Cao" is because four of the actors committed suicide.The first to pass away was Shen Hao, who drowned herself in a river in 1966 at the age of 50.

Then, on Nov. 23, 1968, famous performance artist Shangguan Yunzhu umped to his death at the age of 48. Just a month later, Deng Nan and Shang Ahxin, who also starred in “Stage Sisters” committed sucide.