105. Ye ban ge sheng/Midnight Song (1937)

Running Time: 113 minutes
Directed By: Ma-Xu Weibang
Written By: Ma-Xu Weibang
Main Cast: Menghe Gu, Ping Hu, Shan Jin, Chao Shi

A CHINESE VERSION OF "THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA"

I'm not sure if the title of this film is meant to be written as "Midnight Song" or "Song at Midnight", but the book lists it as the former, so that's what we'll go with. This was a really tedious picture to get through, although it is one of the better film adaptations of The Phantom of the Opera that I've seen.

The film starts out focussing in on an old, dilapidated opera house, that is soon to be occupied by a traveling theatre group. When the crew arrives at the opera house, they soon meet the proprietor and begin their rehearsals. When the lead male actor, Sun, is given a new song to rehearse, he asks the rest of the crew to clear the stage and leave him alone so that he can practice it. When he struggles with the new song, he is coached by a voice that emanates from the rafters. Sun becomes startled, but the proprietor tells him not to worry, that it's just an old ghost and that they've been there comfortably for years and he has never caused any danger. The voice ends up helping him get the song down pat and Sun treks upstairs to thank his unknown coach. Upon arriving in the attic, Sun finds a man, shielding his face with a hood and dressed all in black. He thanks the unknown man for his help and begins to chat with him. The Phantom reveals himself as Song Danping, a former revolutionary who, to avoid being persecuted, changed his name and took up acting in the opera.

He goes on to tell Sun that, approximately ten years earlier, while acting in the very theatre where they stand, he took a romantic interest in a woman named Li Xiaoxia, which angered a local thug who also was interested in her. The thug, out of jealousy, caught Song as he was exiting the opera house and threw nitric acid into his face. He was left wrapped in bandages for months and when the curtain was finally lifted on his face, he was disfigured. He gave orders to tell Li Xiaoxia that he was dead and he went into hiding, into the rafters of the old theatre. For ten years, Song would stand at the theatre windows and sing to Li at midnight, and for ten years Song waited for a worthy prospect to pass through the theatre, someone that he deemed worthy enough to go to Li and pretend to be him, hoping that this will help her recover from the loss of her lover.

I've never seen a great film adaptation of "The Phantom of the Opera", which leads me to believe that this story is just one that simply doesn't appeal to me. "Midnight Song" was no exception, as it was certainly not a great film, in my opinion. It was, however, better than any other version I've seen and created the most emotion than any others as well. When Song reveals his disfigured face to the camera and we see him have a total breakdown, as he faces the realization that he can never allow the love of his life to cast her eyes upon him again, this is a great scene, but one of few and one that couldn't make up for the slow pacing and out and out boring nature of this whole affair. The performances were average and actually very outdated and much to "classic" for my taste. I wouldn't call "Midnight Song" a complete loss, but it certainly wasn't a winner either and if we rated on thumbs, this would be a definite downer.

RATING: 4/10 I'll go with a '4' considering there were a few engaging scenes and the story was atrocious by any standards.

NEXT UP: Grand Illusion...Probably Jean Renoir's most famous film and one that I have seen before and remember really liking a lot. Review should be up late tonight or tomorrow.

February 16, 2010 7:09pm