Sunday, July 6, 2008

SONG OF MIDNIGHT - CHINA'S FIRST HORROR FEATURE FILM

Once in awhile, I come across some interesting videos for cinephiles or cineastes. I've posted music videos and movie trailers and film clips. This will be the first full movie I've posted and why? Well, read the information on this movie I copied from Wikipedia:
Song at Midnight (simplified Chinese: 夜半歌声; traditional Chinese: 夜半歌聲; pinyin: Yè bàn gē shēng) (also known as Singing at Midnight or literally Voice of Midnight) is a 1937 film directed by Ma-Xu Weibang. Often referred to as the first Chinese horror film, Song at Midnight is a remake/adaptation of Gaston Leroux's Phantom of the Opera, though the film injects a significant political subplot involving the leftist revolutionary movement to the original story.
The film stars Gu Menghe, Zhou Wenzhu, and Jin Shan as the disfigured anti-hero Song Danping. Ma-Xu made one sequel to Song at Midnight in 1941 during the war. Both films resurfaced in the West at the Udine Far East Film Festival in 1998.[1] Since then, the film has been shown at various film festivals around the world, notably at the 62nd Venice International Film Festival's "Secret History of Chinese Cinema" retrospective.
Check it out - it is quite an interesting movie and even though produced in 1937, it can still weave its magic over you. Enjoy. (Sorry no English subtitles for the time being).

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