New Year Sacrifice (1956) User Reviews

A well-made, simple tragedy

[asu · 7/10 · 12 February 2001]

This movie is a generally well made, occasionally melodramatic story of a peasant woman in China who is widowed twice, and betrayed by both the strict confines of society and by the cruel nature of her neighbours.

The original tale by Lu Xun is more complex, and compelling, but the elements that the movie retained are convincing and solid (probably more than they could've been with all the stories elements).

A special note: the narrator's voice makes only three appearances, and are either redundant and useless, or party of the propaganda of the time period. For what its worth, the film depicts the real ills of China that its later inhabitants are still struggling with...the old ways and the solutions they chose.

Zhu Fu

[a-39151-82319 · 8/10 · 21 January 2023]

Unfortunate times. Women were at the bottom. I don't understand why Xianglinsao's husband is portrayed as hardworking and honest in this movie, so that some people think this man is also worthy of sympathy. Lu Xun didn't mention a lot about the character of Xianglinsao's husband in the original text. But he must not be a good man, who married Xianglinsao by force. At the end, Lu Xun said that fortunately the evail time had come to an end. But the truth is that women's suffering is still happening in some corners. Who can speak for that chained mother of eight children? Moreover, Xianglinsao is now often mocked as a synonym for a resentful woman. It makes me feel sorrow. We, most of us, are still the spectators Lu Xun wrote a hundred years ago.