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No spoken dialogue. Intertitles: Chinese. No subtitle track in this language.
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Synopsis
The student Hong Yu and his young neighbour Xiao Hong fall in love and exchange letters with help from their friends. News of his father's serious illness calls him home, where a marriage arranged at his father's deathbed forces him to choose between love and filial duty. Distance, delayed messages and family arrangements gradually cast a shadow over their lively romance.
Cast
DirectorsCai Chusheng
Historical context
An early film directed by Cai Chusheng, it examines parents' power to arrange marriages through a tragic young romance. Chen Yanyan's portrayal of the young heroine, together with the use of letters, courtyards and neighbouring windows, reflects the style of urban silent romances in the early 1930s.
Sources and availability
The synopsis and editorial text were written for this collection. The references below were cross-checked to identify the film and its copy; each editorial section identifies its reference.
Work catalogued as public domain in the United States.
The reference concerns the original work. Restorations, colorization, translations and other territories may have different conditions. This site uses the player enabled by the channel.
Availability checked on September 11, 2026.
Photograph credit
Photographs cropped, resized and optimized as WebP, displayed in monochrome.
- Chen Yanyan — Liangyou (The Young Companion), issue 96, October 1934; Chen Yanyan is the standing actress, as identified by the English Wikipedia caption; via Wikimedia Commons. · Public domain — PD-China and PD-1996
