Finally finding the time to watch this film. I like it so far, although is is hard to follow with the fast paced subtitles it uses. The story reminds me a bit of Lés Mis. But it is also clearly visible a propaganda piece.

The YouTube video thumbnail features a black-and-white image of a woman with long hair, looking upwards with an expression of surprise or fear. At the top, the text reads “CHINESE FILM CLASSICS.” Below the woman is the title “The White-Haired Girl” in red, followed by the Chinese characters “白毛女.” In the bottom left corner, there’s a circular emblem with a stylized design.

ABOUT THE FILM: The White-Haired Girl 白毛女 (1950) is a seminal work of New China cinema. A musical film adapted from a stage production, which in turn was claimed to have been adapted from a popular folk legend, The White-Haired Girl is an ideologically-freighted story of liberation and rejuvenation. A fresh young country girl is subjected to inhuman suffering by a despicable landlord, before being rescued when the communist Eighth-Route Army liberates her village and sees justice done. Xi’er’s new lease on life became symbolic of the rebirth of China, whose modern history was divided into two distinct periods by the slogan: “The old society forced humans to become ghosts / The new society turns ghosts into humans.”

⤑ The White-Haired Girl 白毛女 (1950) with English subtitles.

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