Husband and Wife

Husband and Wife (1951)

An absorbing example of genre filmmaking in the People’s Republic of China, Husband and Wife could at first glance be mistaken for any other romantic melodrama chronicling the rise and decline of a married couple’s love; here, though, that love takes place in (and is entirely defined by) a realm of political upheaval and Maoist ideology. A Shanghai intellectual marries an illiterate peasant woman–turned–collectivist hero, with outcomes both universal (differences emerge) and specific (revolutionary self-critiques). At first a popular hit, the film (and Zheng himself) was soon critically attacked for counterrevolutionary, pro-bourgeois thought. Zheng even penned a confessional autocritique, but the damage to his career was done. (BAMPFA)

Director: Zheng Jun-li
Writer: Zheng Jun-li

Casts

	Zhao Dan as Li Ke
	Jiang Tianliu as Zhang Ying
	Wang Guiling as Xiao Juan's Father
	Wen Ming as Zhang Ying's Mother
	Wu Yinyan as Qing Feng (as Wu Yin)

Crew