Husband and Wife

Release Date: 1951-03-02

Overview: An absorbing example of genre filmmaking in the People’s Republic of China, Husband and Wife could at first glance be mistaken for any other romantic melodrama chronicling the rise and decline of a married couple’s love; here, though, that love takes place in (and is entirely defined by) a realm of political upheaval and Maoist ideology. A Shanghai intellectual marries an illiterate peasant woman–turned–collectivist hero, with outcomes both universal (differences emerge) and specific (revolutionary self-critiques). At first a popular hit, the film (and Zheng himself) was soon critically attacked for counterrevolutionary, pro-bourgeois thought. Zheng even penned a confessional autocritique, but the damage to his career was done. (BAMPFA)

Rating: 0 / 10

Cast

Zhao Dan

as Li Ke

Jiang Tianliu

as Zhang Ying

Wang Guiling

as Xiao Juan's Father

Wen Ming

as Zhang Ying's Mother

Wu Yinyan

as Qing Feng (as Wu Yin)