Twin Sisters
About Twin Sisters
Twin girls are split as children. The younger, Erbao, is taken to the city by her father, a gun runner, and given to warlord Governor Qian as a concubine. The elder, Dabao, stays in the country with their mother, marries the poor carpenter Tao Ge, and years later becomes wet nurse to Erbao's baby in the Qian house. When Tao is hurt and Erbao will not advance Dabao's wages, Dabao steals a gold locket. In the struggle a vase falls and kills Qian's sister. Dabao is jailed. Their mother finds that the officer trying the case is the husband who abandoned her. Erbao, once she knows who they are, takes her mother and sister to plead with the governor.
Cast & crew
More about Twin Sisters
Zheng Zhengqiu directed and wrote both the novel and the screenplay. Hu Die plays both sisters. Mingxing made the film in Shanghai. It opened in China on February 13, 1934. The Chinese title is Zimei hua (Sister Flowers).
Themes
Background
Zheng, who had helped found Mingxing in 1922, was still making family melodramas in Shanghai in the early 1930s, aimed at the city's theater audience.
Making
Hu Die changed makeup and costume between the country sister and the warlord's concubine so both could appear in the Qian house.
Look
Dong Keyi photographed the film, including the shots that place both of Hu Die's sisters in one household.
Music
He Zhaozhang is credited with the music.
Preservation
The film survives. A complete copy is on the Internet Archive, and another is on Wikimedia Commons under the title Sister Flowers.
Notes
- Zheng Xiaoqiu, the director's son, plays Tao Ge.
- Xuan Jinglin plays the mother. Tan Zhiyuan plays the father.
- Xu Shenyuan plays Governor Qian. Gu Meijun plays Miss Qian, the sister who is killed.
- Dabao is hired as wet nurse to her own sister's child and is not told who the mother is.
- The picture is also known in English as Sister Flowers.
- A full copy is on the Internet Archive.
Scenes
- Dabao is taken on as wet nurse and finds that the mistress looks exactly like her.
- Erbao slaps her when she asks for wages to pay a doctor.
- In prison their mother recognizes the judge as the husband who left her.
Also available
- Internet Archive (twinsisters)
- Wikimedia Commons (Sister Flowers (1933).webm)
