Song at Midnight
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| Song at Midnight | |
|---|---|
| File:SongatMidnightDVD.jpg The Cinema Epoch edition DVD of Song at Midnight | |
| Directed by | Ma-Xu Weibang |
| Written by | Ma-Xu Weibang |
| Produced by | Zhang Shankun |
| Starring | Jin Shan Gu Menghe Zhou Wenzhu Hu Ping |
| Cinematography | Yu Xingsan Xue Boqing |
Production company | |
Release date |
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Running time | 113 minutes |
| Country | China |
| Language | Mandarin |
Song at Midnight (simplified Chinese: 夜半歌声; traditional Chinese: 夜半歌聲; pinyin: Yè bàn gē shēng) (also known as Singing at Midnight or literally Voice of Midnight) is a 1937 film directed by Ma-Xu Weibang. Often referred to as the first Chinese horror film, Song at Midnight is a remake/adaptation of Gaston Leroux's Phantom of the Opera, though the film injects a significant political subplot involving the leftist revolutionary movement to the original story.
The film stars Gu Menghe, Zhou Wenzhu, and Jin Shan as the disfigured anti-hero Song Danping. Ma-Xu made one sequel to Song at Midnight in 1941 during the war. Both films resurfaced in the West at the Udine Far East Film Festival in 1998.[1] Since then, the film has been shown at various film festivals around the world, notably at the 62nd Venice International Film Festival's "Secret History of Chinese Cinema" retrospective.
Reputation
Today the film is well regarded, and was named as one of the best 100 Chinese films by both the Hong Kong Film Awards in 2005, and by Asia Weekly in 1999.[2]
Song at Midnight has also been remade twice. The first remake, translated as The Mid-Nightmare is a two-parter by Hong Kong director, Yuan Qiuxia, released in 1962 (part I) and 1963 (part II). It stars Betty Loh Ti and Lao Zhei. In 1995, Song at Midnight was remade, this time as The Phantom Lover by Ronny Yu, with Leslie Cheung in the role of Song Danping.
Cast
- Gu Menghe
- Hu Ping
- Jin Shan
- Yee Chau-shui
- Zhou Wenzhu
DVD release
As part of their Chinese film retrospective, Cinema Epoch released Song at Midnight on Region 0 DVD on May 8, 2007. The DVD includes subtitles in English.
An earlier DVD edition by the Guangzhou Beauty Culture Communication Co. Ltd was released on December 1, 2006 in the United States.
References
- ^ Robinson, David (Winter 1999–2000), "Return of the Phantom", Film Quarterly, 53 (2): 43, doi:10.2307/1213720
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: year (link) - ^ "100 Greatest Chinese Films of the 20th Century". Asia Weekly Magazine. 1999-12-19. Retrieved 2007-05-10.
External links
- Song at Midnight is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive
- Song at Midnight at IMDb
- Song at Midnight at AllMovie
- Song at Midnight at the Chinese Movie Database
- Song at Midnight at the UCSD: Chinese Cinema Web-based Learning Center
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