Name

The Image of Lawyers in Street Angel (Part 2)

Date

2013-10-02

Introduction

The film Street Angel, released on 24th July, 1937, is the first film in China portraying the interaction between modern lawyers and the common people.
How does Street Angel depict modern lawyers?
Both Little Chen and Old Wang believed that they had to wear decent outfits to see a lawyer. The law firm they entered situated in a skyscraper. It was luxuriously furnished and equipped with novel appliances they had never seen. The lawyer appeared finally, but he had no sympathy with the unfortunate people who could not afford the fee for legal services.
With concrete images, Street Angel highlights the modernity of Chinese lawyers and the great gap between lawyers and common people. The scenarist-director Yuan Muzhi, highly influenced by the left-wing social thought, believed that the poor mass could only rely on one another to survive through the hard situation.