Art house: Sorrows of the Forbidden City is better without the baggage

Even by the standards of a political system in which cinema was primarily an ideological tool, Sorrows of the Forbidden City is extraordinary in terms of the repercussions its controversy engendered over a decade after its release on the mainland.

A costume drama relating the waning years of the Qing dynasty and the Empress Dowager’s grasp for power, the 1948 Hong Kong production was opportunistically exploited to bolster Chairman Mao Zedong in his own struggle against President Liu Shaoqi during the opening phase of the Cultural Revolution in 1966-68.

Absent from the voluminous discussion was an appraisal of the work itself from an artistic perspective. That situation has changed since Liu’s rehabilitation in 1980 led to retrospective screenings of the film.

Today it is widely acknowledged that the Zhu Shilin-directed saga is a sterling example of the kind of highbrow, hybrid Shanghai- Hong Kong filmmaking that emerged during a golden age lasting roughly from 1946 to 1951.

It was a time when the crème de la crème of Shanghai’s left-wing movie community migrated south to enjoy the then-British colony’s freedoms, before a sizable contingent made the return journey following the establishment of the People’s Republic of China.

Yao Ke’s screenplay deftly combined grand historical events of the 1890s with the specific antagonisms involving Empress Cixi (Tang Ruoqing), her ineffectual nephew and figurehead Emperor Guangxu (Shu Shi, one of China’s most popular leading men, whom Hong Kong’s government would soon deport to the mainland for his pro-Communist activities), and his beloved concubine, Zhen Fei (Zhou Xuan). The latter was China’s brightest musical superstar, here excelling in a serious role.

Zhu’s well-paced direction skilfully maintains a balance between the era’s epic milestones and the palace’s intimate entanglements. On a technical level, the sets, costumes, and camerawork are a tribute to the aesthetic expertise of Hong Kong’s Yung Hwa Studio. The film originally premiered to accolades in Hong Kong in November 1948.