Name

The Image of Lawyers in Street Angel (Part 1)

Date

2013/09/14

Introduction

On 24th July, 1937, the film Street Angel came to the Shanghai Jincheng Theatre. This film, written and directed by Yuan Muzhi and starred by Zhao Dan and Zhou Xuan, is ranked 11 in the list of “Best 100 Chinese Motion Pictures” released by the Hong Kong Film Award in 2005, and is the only 1930s film in the top twenties.
Set in the 1935 Shanghai, Street Angel depicts the harsh reality of life faced by the urban poor through the rescue of a teahouse singer Xiaohong. Xiaohong’s adoptive parents were going to sell her to a gangster, and she asked her neighbors, the street musician Little Chen and the newspaper seller Old Wang, for help. The first rescue plan they came up with is to file a court petition by hiring an Attorney. Street Angel then became the first film in China portraying how the modern lawyers interacted with the common people.