中英雙語話中國影視演藝圈 第5期:歌女紅牡丹

Singing Girl Red Peony (1931)

《歌女紅牡丹》（1931)

The film tells a famous Beijing Opera Girl player called Red Peony who learned Beijing Opera since she was very young, and she had been deeply influenced by Confucian Ritualism. Although married to an abusive husband, she stayed with him no matter what happened. Red Peony got a respectable income as a well known actress, but it was never enough to keep up with her husband's extravagant spending.

影片講述京劇名伶紅牡丹從小學習京戲，深受封建禮教的影響。儘管嫁了個無賴丈夫,但她傳統禮教要求她恪守蘭從四德的婦訓，毫無怨言與他一起生活。

The accumulative effects of depression brought damage to her voice, she gradually faded away from the spotlight. At the same time, her husband continued to waste the money away. After his attempt of selling their daughter was stopped by Red Peony, he tricked his daughter to a brothel and sold her to the brothel owner. When one of Red Peony's rich suitors learned of this and brought her daughter back home after paying a huge sum of money, she was still not awaken.

起初作爲名伶的她收人頗豐，但仍不夠丈夫揮霍。後來因爲屢次的刺激給嗓子帶來了很大的傷害，她逐漸淡出了公衆的視線，同時，其夫繼續揮霍。當他試圖賣自己女兒遭到紅牡丹出面阻攔時，他便把女兒騙出，賣入娼門。一位暗地裏追求紅牡丹的富商知道了，花重金代她贖出了女兒，但他仍不覺悟。

Meanwhile, Red Peony's husband was arrested on an involuntary manslaughter charge. Despite all that he had done, Red Peony forgave him and visited him in prison before going on a performance tour. She even appealed to her friends to lobby for her husband's early release. Finally, her husband’s conscience was awakened and he reformed himself.

同時她丈夫因過失殺人被捕入獄。儘管如此，她還是既往不咎原諒了他，並在去外地演出前專程去獄中探望，她甚至還託人將其早些釋放。終於，使其夫幡然悔誤，改邪歸正。

Singing Girl Red Peony was renowned as the truly first sound film made by China. It fully revealed the characteristics of sound film, which made the audience hear the traditional Chinese art—Beijing Opera's singing and dialog through the screen. In consequence, it won a box-office success in Shanghai and even in big cities of China, attracted overseas audience from the Southeast Asia when it was showed in Shanghai Xinguang Theater on 15th, March, 1931.

《歌女紅牡丹》是中國拍攝的真正第一部發音有聲片，它充分展示了電影有聲的特點，使觀衆第一次透過銀幕聽到了中國傳統藝術——京劇的唱白。因此，當它 於1931年3月15日在上海新光大戲院公映時，轟動了上海乃至全國的大城市，也吸引了南洋的僑胞觀衆。