The film:
Lian’ai yu yiwu 戀愛與義務
Directed by Richard Poh (Bu Wancang)
Screenplay by Chu Shek Lin (Zhu Shilin)
Produced by Lo Ming Yau (Luo Mingyou)
Production Manager: Lay Min Wei (Li Minwei)
Cinematography by Wong Siu Fan (Huang Shaofen)
Art Director: William Kolland (Gao Weilian)
Set Design: Chao Fu Li (Zhao Fuli)
Original Chinese-English bilingual intertitles translated by Y.C. Jeffrey Huang (Huang Yicuo)
Studio: United Photoplay Service (Lianhua yingpian gongsi), Shanghai
Year of release: 1931
153 minutes
Silent black & white film with partial tinting
Cast: Lily Yuen (Ruan Lingyu), Raymond King (Jin Yan), Liu Jiqun, Chen Yanyan, Li Ying, Zhou Lili, Gao Weilian, Huang Ke, Wang Yiwen, Shi Juefei, Yu Juyun, Ouyang Bolu, Guo Yingying
The film, produced in Shanghai, was one of the first to co-star Ruan Lingyu and Jin Yan.
A surviving print of the film is held at TFAI in Taipei.
This unrestored digital version of the silent film “Love and Duty” (Lian’ai yu yiwu, 1931) is based on the copy of the film held at the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute 國家電影及視聽文化中心 (tfai.org.tw), and is made available for limited noncommercial teaching and research purposes through special agreement with the translator. Information about the restored version of the film is available at tfai.org.tw
© Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute
© 國家電影及視聽文化中心
Subtitles translated by Christopher Rea
English translation © Christopher Rea
Note: Chinese text appearing onscreen has been translated when A) it was not translated in the original film; and B) the meaning of the original Chinese and English intertitles is significantly different.
LEARN ABOUT THE RESTORED FILM:
1931《戀愛與義務》修復前後比對 Restored “Love and Duty” Before & After: https://youtu.be/hEaeKUenLJM
SYNOPSIS
Yang Nei Fan (played by Ruan Lingyu) and Li Tsu Yi (played by Jin Yan) are neighbors and schoolmates in Shanghai. They fall in love, but Yang’s father arranges for her to marry Huang Ta Jen (played by Li Ying), “the scion of a respectable family” and owner of a newspaper. Yang has a son and a daughter by Huang. A few years later, Yang and Li are reunited when Yang’s son falls into a lake at the park, and Li saves him. Their romance rekindles, especially during Li’s visit to their home, when Huang answers a phone call from his mistress Chang Ying (played by Zhou Lili), leaving Yang and Li to chat on the couch. Li, imagining himself to be a romantic hero, persuades Yang to leave her husband and–much against her will–her children, and to live with him. Yang and Li have a daughter together, Ping Ehr (played by Chen Yanyan), but fall into poverty and Li dies of illness. Yang supports herself and her daughter as a seamstress into her old age. When she sees her estranged grown children perform at a charity performance sponsored by Huang, her maternal longing is passionately stirred. By chance, her employer sends her to measure those very children for new clothes at Huang’s mansion, but she hides her identity from them. As the younger generation develop their own romantic attachments, Yang is overcome by shame and regret. She commits suicide, leaving notes for Ping Ehr and for Huang that bring them–and all three (half-)siblings–together. They weep together, and Huang tells Yang’s children that she was a good woman, and has them kowtow before her portrait.
Learn more:
Watch other films starring Ruan Lingyu, Jin Yan, and Chen Yanyan.
Watch Richard Poh’s wartime film Hua Mu Lan (1939).
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