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OPEN CLASSIC CINEMA · 602

The Pearl Necklace

1926102 minChina

Synopsis

To impress their guests, a couple borrow an expensive pearl necklace for a party. Its disappearance sends them into debt, disgrace and a struggle to rebuild their lives. Their search for security reveals the distance between the society they want to join and the people who are actually willing to help them.

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Video edition: Wikimedia Commons
Original language: No spoken dialogue. Intertitles: Chinese.
This copy runs: 101:32
Subtitles: No subtitle track in this language

No spoken dialogue. Intertitles: Chinese. No subtitle track in this language.

Languages and subtitles

No subtitle track in this language

Wikimedia Commons · Hou Yao · Public domain

Cast

Lei Xiadian

Liu Hanjun

Zhai Qiqi

Xing Shaomei

DirectorsLi Zeyuan

Inspirations

Maupassant's short story The Necklace supplies the starting point, but the film expands the situation into a Shanghai moral melodrama. Animated sequences, including pearls changing into written characters, make material desire visible rather than leaving it entirely to the intertitles.

Sources and availability

General references identify the work and its copy. A reference beside an editorial section is linked to the claims checked in that section.

Chinese Film Classics Wikimedia Commons · copyright reference China · Copyright Law, Article 23 US Copyright Office · foreign works Internet Archive · film copy

Work catalogued as public domain in the United States.

The public-domain references concern the original films in the United States. Rights can differ for other countries, editions, restorations, music or translations. Sources are listed on each film page.

Availability checked on September 11, 2026.

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