Part of Facets' Celebration of Chinese Cinema series, this 1956 tearjerker, based on a 1924 short story by Lu Xun and set in the early 20th-century, is a portrayal of the miserable treatment that women endured in pre-communist China. The protagonist is Mrs. Xianglin (Bai Yang), a hardworking widow who flees home and takes a job as a maid after her mother-in-law tries to sell her to a second husband. Eventually, she's abducted by relatives anyway and dragged off to nuptials, but her second husband proves a considerate man, and the pair are blessed with a child. Unfortunately, her new spouse dies deep in debt (and their house is seized by heartless creditors) and--as if that weren't a crushing enough blow--her son is also carried off by wolves, a double tragedy that leaves the woman an emotional wreck who is treated as a pariah. New Year Sacrifice resembles an exotic version of a Fannie Hurst-style “suffering heroine” weepy, but it's visually arresting--director Sang Hu presents a sequence of almost static tableaux against lovely backdrops. And while the political subtext is apparent--suggesting that the new Marxist regime has liberated women from the oppression caused by capitalist greed, religious superstition, and social bigotry--the film doesn't cross the line into crude propaganda until the very end, when a narrator solemnly intones that such times are gone forever. An interesting historical document and a reasonably affecting melodrama, New Year Sacrifice debuts on DVD with a brief introduction (apparently prepared for a television showing), a biographical entry on Lu Xun, and a story synopsis. Recommended. (F. Swietek)
New Year Sacrifice
Facets, 100 min., in Mandarin w/English subtitles, not rated, DVD: $29.95 Volume 20, Issue 1
New Year Sacrifice
Star Ratings
As of March 2022, Video Librarian has changed from a four-star rating system to a five-star one. This change allows our reviewers to have a wider range of critical viewpoints, as well as to synchronize with Google’s rating structure. This change affects all reviews from March 2022 onwards. All reviews from before this period will still retain their original rating. Future film submissions will be considered our new 1-5 star criteria.
Order From Your Favorite Distributor Today: