Zi mei hua (Twin Sisters)

In the early sound film "Twin Sisters", which was a huge success upon its release in 1934, Hu Die (also known as Butterfly Wu), a superstar of early Shanghai cinema, demonstrates her talent in a dual role with her characteristic nuance and elegance. Here she plays twin sisters from contrasting social backgrounds: Dabao lives in poverty with her ailing husband and aging mother, while Erbao, having been abducted as a child by her father—an arms dealer—is now the mistress of a powerful general in the big city. The liberal-progressive director Zheng Zhengqiu staged a quintessential melodrama that seemingly aligned with China’s later leftist doctrine and came across as a lesson in class struggle. Yet the conflict is not resolved through a revolution, but rather through the surprisingly progressive, anti-patriarchal solidarity among women (sisterhood, in the truest sense of the word). A classic “leftist” social drama with unexpectedly subtle nuances.