Abstract
ABSTRACTThis article rethinks where the films of Sun Yu (1900–1990) stand in a highly complex political, theoretical and industrial matrix. By combining a historical reading of the industrial conditions, and a hermeneutic reading of the theoretical discourse in the 1930s, this article argues that the ‘soft film’ is not ‘apolitical’; rather, it shares with the ‘hard film’ position a common belief that cinema is an educational tool for political ends. In this light, the article uses a close analysis of two films by Sun Yu, Tianming/Daybreak (1933) and Tiyu huanghou/Queen of Sports (1934), to demonstrate that Sun's films were intended as Nationalist propaganda. However, by focusing on perfecting the forms of these films as entertainment so knowingly, and by turning the female protagonist of each film as what Giorgio Agamben calls a homo sacer, the text becomes open to multiple and mutually conflicting readings.
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