Lee’s essay is extremely indulging as rather than exploring the cinematic universe from an Americanized perspective, it looks at films in the context of late 1930s and early 1940s Shanghai. He encourages readers to look through the eyes of a citizen belonging to that time period to fully comprehend the socio-political influences.
During the early 1930s in Shanghai, there was a high demand for visual entertainment due to industrialization, which was evident through the increasing popularity of film reviews in magazines. Movies of the time had highly distinguishable characteristics: a preference for melodramas, representation of female characters as feminine and docile rather than seductive, a tendency to have slow-paced narratives… Producers and directors attempted to completely detach from foreign influences, but, like many other countries at the time, the influence of old Hollywood was ever so present.
Towards the end of the 1930s, however, Shanghainese cinema underwent a significant change: the government took control of creative industries and films shifted towards political undertones. Producers were given little to no autonomy in choosing the theme of the movies and their main purpose changed from entertainment to propaganda.
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