Romance of a Fruit Peddler
About Romance of a Fruit Peddler
Carpenter Zheng comes back to Shanghai from Nanyang and sells fruit. Across the street, Doctor Zhu's clinic is failing. Zheng and Miss Zhu court by a basket run on a string. Doctor Zhu will not allow the marriage because Zheng's trade is too low, unless Zheng can fill the clinic. Zheng turns a gambling-club staircase into a slide, the customers are hurt, and they become patients. The clinic prospers, Zhu agrees, and Zheng marries Miss Zhu.
Cast & crew
More about Romance of a Fruit Peddler
Zhang Shichuan directed it for Mingxing. It opened on 5 October 1922 at the Olympic Theater in Shanghai. The Chinese titles are 劳工之爱情 and 掷果缘. Zheng Zhegu plays Zheng, Zheng Zhengqiu plays Doctor Zhu, and Yu Ying plays Miss Zhu.
Themes
Background
Shanghai in 1922 already had purpose-built cinemas. The Olympic Theater on the opening night was one of them.
In film history
Because earlier Chinese features are gone, this 22-minute comedy is the oldest complete Chinese fiction film that can still be projected.
Making
Mingxing shot it as a short comedy, not as a tragic social film. The slide gag is a built staircase, not a trick of the camera.
Preservation
A complete print survives. Earlier Chinese features, including much of what was in Shanghai in 1932, do not.
Notes
- It is the earliest complete Chinese fiction film known to survive.
- Many earlier Chinese reels were lost to nitrate decay and to the 1932 bombing of Shanghai.
- The basket on a string is the lovers' private post.
- The patients are manufactured: Zheng injures the gamblers so the doctor will have work.
Scenes
- Zheng and Miss Zhu pass notes in a basket hung on a string.
- Gamblers shoot down a rebuilt staircase and limp into Doctor Zhu's clinic.