The Return of ‘Red Heroine’ (1929)

After a year of midnight phone calls and long distance negotiations, Poly-Asian Union Film & Media in Beijing has released a copy of RED HEROINE, a rarely seen 1929 silent wuxia film, for a limited number of US screenings. Devil Music Ensemble, a group of Boston-based musicians, has composed a brand new score for the swordplay classic, and will be touring and performing live accompaniment for the film. RED HEROINE has only previously shown in the US as part of UCLA’s “Heroic Grace” tribute to kung fu movies in 2003. The film has been adapted from a PAL Beta SP source to a video hard drive and will be digitally projected for the screenings.

Fan Xuepeng in RED HEROINE (1929).

RED HEROINE is the oldest complete Chinese martial arts film (it also inspired a number of sequels). The archetypal story structure of an innocent wronged by a villain, trained by a master, and returning to seek vengeance is all here. Although both the Nationalists and the Communists tried to ban swordplay (wuxia) movies, there’s a good reason these films were always popular. Impoverished workers who found no justice in daily life loved the tales of heroism and revenge. Add the convoluted plots drawn from wuxia novels written in the new vernacular style, and the result was long-running martial soap operas, with magic and sword fights and flying heroes. Wuxia filmmakers were on the cutting edge of cinema effects technology in 1920s Shanghai. A film like RED HEROINE gave the tech crew more room to play in than the serious dramas favored by social reformers. But there was no interest in preserving these genre movies back then. Most of them were screened until they disintegrated and then forgotten.

Fan Xuepeng, an early wuxia actress.

The star of RED HEROINE is Fan Xuepeng, who was born in Jiangsu in 1908. After making her first film in Shanghai around 1925, she achieved early success in the film HEROIC SONS AND DAUGHTERS (1927) and its sequels, as well as in the RED HEROINE and SWORDSWOMAN OF HUANGJIAN series, making her one of the first wuxia stars. Unlike many early martial arts filmmakers, she remained in Shanghai for her entire career (although she made the switch to melodrama after the Nationalist ban on “superstitious” films in 1931). She made her last film in 1963, and died in 1974.

Director Wen Yimin, who can also be seen in a supporting role as a young scholar in RED HEROINE, was a Manchurian who was born in Beijing in 1890. His work for the Youlian studio, which included helming the HEROIC SONS AND DAUGHTERS series (1927-1931) and at least two of the RED HEROINE films (1929-1930), established him as one of China’s first genre directors. In 1934, he moved to the Unique studio, an early venture by the Shaw brothers, who would go on to dominate the Hong Kong film industry decades later. In 1936, Wen co-directed a film, MADAME LAI, with future mogul Shaw Run-me. Wen permanently moved to Hong Kong after the war, where he sometimes worked under the Cantonese version of his name, Man Yat-man.

Wen Yimin in RED HEROINE (left) and later in Hong Kong.

He is frequently credited as an assistant director to the prolific leftist filmmaker Zhu Shilin. Another frequent collaborator was director Ren Yizhi, daughter of Shanghai pioneer Ren Pengnian. He continued to appear in supporting roles in a number of mid-century dramas and action/adventure films. In 1965, he moved to Taiwan, and worked as an actor there until his retirement. He died in 1978.

For more information about the Red Heroine tour with Devil Music Ensemble, go here.

The new score for Red Heroine will be premiered at on Sept. 5 at the Films at the Gate free outdoor festival in Boston MA. For more information, visit the FATG website.

To read more about the history of early martial arts movies, see “The Origins of Kung Fu Cinema, Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.”

Tags: Fan Xuepeng, kung fu movie history, Red Heroine (1929), Wen Yimin, Wuxia