Highway (or Big Road) (1935)

Lianhua Film Studio

Director: Sun Yu

silent film with some added sound

set during war of resistance against the Japanese invasion

Quality of film affected by lack of resources during war

Content of film (including unnamed enemy) affected by political climate of war

representative work of leftist cinema of 1930s, promotes patriotic and socialist ideals

Characters:

The male workers:

Jin Ge optimist in spite of miserable childhood (grows up working on the road) (represents perseverance, courage)

Zhang Yu melancholy, solitary (represents determination, silence and industry)

Little Luo romantic dreamer (represents ambitionwants to drive the bulldozer)

Zheng Jun intellectual, a student fleeing Manchuria after Japanese occupation (represents intelligence and wisdom)

Zhangda hearty strongman (represents rough ways)

Number Six petty thief rescued by other 5 workers (a follower)

The waitresses:

Orchid (alternately known as Dingxiang or Lilac) shy, falls in love with Luo

Jasmine (Moli) aggressive and resourceful former entertainer; remains friends with all 6 men

Synopsis:

Six young male workers and two waitresses experience a political awakening when they participate in the construction of a strategically important road for the Chinese army. They have different characters and come from different social backgrounds, but all band together and work for the national cause. A traitorous landlord is bribed by the Japanese to slow down road construction. When the young workers oppose him, he imprisons and tortures them. The waitresses use their talents for the cause: to help the workers escape. The road is completed, but the workers pay a great price during an enemy bombing. The film ends with a bright tail.

Sound Terminology:

Diegetic Sound: Sound coming from within the film world; whose source is visible on the screen or implied to be present by the action of the film (coming from off-screen). voices of characters

sounds made by objects in the story

music represented as coming from instruments in the story spaceExample: Jasmines song about Fengyang City, songs workers sing while building the road; crowd, machine, horse and baby noises.

Non-Diegetic Sound: Sound coming from a source outside the story space; whose source is neither visible on the screen nor has been implied to be present in the action. narrator's commentary

sound effects added for dramatic effect

mood music

Example: Playful vaudevillian sounds. Main Themes

Life, Death, and Survival Patriotism and Martyrdom

How does the film answer this question: What makes a patriotic hero?

Other Questions: What is the symbolic importance of the ghosts rising in the field of death? Does the film prize subjectivity (the individual) or group unity? Who and what survives this attack, and does the film have a bright tail ending?

What does the film suggest is the appropriate attitude for a hero? What kind of background does a patriotic Chinese have, and what kinds of choices does one make? How is this film is more clear about the distinctions between good and evil than Zhang Ailings stories of uneven contrast?

Think about Jasmines response to her background of desolation (song about Fengyang city), in comparison to the attitude Zhang Ailing had toward desolation.

Love, Passion Mens and Womens Roles

What types of love are there in the film? What are the characters passionate about and who are they passionate for? How does the film combine romantic love and love of country?

Jasmine:

In Highway, men and women have roles in life and in romantic love. How are these roles sometimes subverted in the film? What is the importance of love, fantasy, and sexuality in this film about war? What kind of pleasure can be found in a story about hardship, toil, and death?

Men and women both have roles in protecting the country (patriotic love), just as people from all class backgrounds do. What roles do the men play? What roles do the women play?

Below: Jasmine captures Director Hu and presents the evidence to show his guilt

How does this film show the convergence of two types of passionsthe sexual and the revolutionary? What kinds of figures are Jasmine and Orchid, and what kinds of roles do they play in the action? What role does the film propose for women and sexuality for achieving political goals within the context of war? How does this role that Jasmine plays as a revolutionary hero set her up to be martyred at the end of the film?

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