Photographs in Films Starring Ruan Lingyu: Considering Geometric Regions of the Motion Picture Frame
Abstract
This multimodal essay utilizes the Semantic Annotation Tool (SAT), an open-source drop-in module, to create samples of time-based annotations for still photographs in Chinese films starring Ruan Lingyu.1 Exemplary films include Love and Duty (Lian’ai yu yiwu; 1931), The Peach Girl (Taohua qixue ji; 1931), and The New Women (Xin nüxing; completed in 1934, released in 1935), all produced by the United China (Lianhua) studio. It shows that the photograph is a motif across the three films, an object that oscillates between the screen world and the social world and a device that makes the viewer pensive. As an experimental attempt, it testifies to the ways in which close film analysis, archival research, and computational methods can be combined.
Recommended Citation
Yang, Panpan
(2024)
"Photographs in Films Starring Ruan Lingyu: Considering Geometric Regions of the Motion Picture Frame,"
The Journal of e-Media Studies: Vol. 7:
Iss.
1, Article 14.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1349/PS1.1938-6060.A.504
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.dartmouth.edu/joems/vol7/iss1/14
Clip 1. The Peach Girl (1931).
Yang Figure 1.png (303 kB)
Figure 1. The transformation of Lingu in The Peach Girl (1931).
Yang Figure 2.png (550 kB)
Figure 2. An advertisement for Chinese Female Film Star Album in Lianyou (1934).
Yang Figure 3.png (597 kB)
Figure 3. Ruan’s funeral [Source: New People Weekly (Xinren zhoukan) 1, no. 28 (1935)].
Love and Duty (1931) Clip 3 - Yang.mp4 (10131 kB)
Clip 3. The family photograph in Love and Duty (1931).
The New Women (1935) Clip 4 - Yang.mp4 (61533 kB)
Clip 4. The wedding photograph in The New Women (1935).
Yang Figure 4.png (416 kB)
Figure 4. The wedding photograph from The New Women [Source: Reprinted in United China Pictorial (Lianhua huabao) 4, no. 26 (1934)].
Yang Figure 5.png (415 kB)
Figure 5. “Fate, fragile as a piece of paper,” Wan Guchan. [Source: Modern Sketch (Shidai manhua), no. 16 (1935)].
The New Women (1935) Clip 5 - Yang.mp4 (96979 kB)
Clip 5. The New Women (1935).
The New Women (1935) Clip 6 - Yang.mp4 (3830 kB)
Clip 6. The New Women (1935).
Yang Figure 6.png (237 kB)
Figure 6. [Chang’e’s] Flight to the Moon, starring Fu Shilan [Source: National Play Pictorial (Guoju huabao) 1, no. 31 (1932)].
Yang Figure 7.png (233 kB)
Figure 7. Chang’e’s Flight to the Moon, starring Li Xiangjun [Source: Beiyang Pictorial (Beiyang huabao) 23, no. 1138 (1934)].
Yang Figure 8.png (229 kB)
Figure 8. Chang’e’s Flight to the Moon, starring Li Shifang [Source: Bimonthly Play Magazine (Banyue jukan), no. 6 (1936)].
The New Women (1935) Clip 7 - Yang.mp4 (33000 kB)
Clip 7. The New Women (1935).
The New Women (1935) Clip 8 - Yang.mp4 (24006 kB)
Clip 8. The New Women (1935).