BEAUTY REMAINS (Mei Ren Yi Jiu)

Director(s): Ann Hu
Country: China
Year: 2005
Language: Mandarin Chinese with English subtitles
Length: 87 minutes
Website: www.emergingpictures.com

Program:
4 April - 22.00 hours - Filmmuseum Vondelpark Amsterdam

It is 1948; China is on the precipice of a new era. The illegitimate daughter and maid of the household, Fei, has grown up in disgrace while her half-sister, Ying, lived a life of leisure. They are now bound together by a clause in the will of their late father. Ying intends to marry her fiancé of many years, Huang, as soon as she can cash in on the family fortune. Fei is forced to either rejoin the wealthy family that never welcomed her or lose her school tuition and independence. To complicate matters, Fei also has designs on Huang, all the more reason to stall the inheritance procedure.

The film illustrates China’s social schism of the 40’s, when the poor reached for Communism and the wealthy for their passports.