The Goddess: Closeups & Villains

While watching The Goddess (Yonggang Wu, 1934), I could not help but notice certain similarities in cinematography and themes to Shanghai Express (Josef von Sternberg, 1932).

In both films, close-ups are used frequently despite being for entirely different purposes. In addition, within each film, the female lead is negatively perceived by other societal characters, objectified by a man, and a villain ultimately dies.

In The Goddess specifically, close-ups are used to capture the reactions and expressions of each main character, portrayed by Ryan Lingyu. The audience often sees the mother’s facial expressions upon each interaction she has with The Boss (Zhizhi Zhang)- a man who threatens to ruin her life unless she stays with him and gives him the money she earns from selling her body. We see the misery and resentment in the mother’s eyes towards The Boss who was taking her money. There are also close-ups of The Boss and the mother’s child, allowing the audience to clearly identify the differences in personalities among each character. For example, The Boss often had a cynical smile in his close-up shots after he takes the money from the woman. Her son’s close-ups are more innocent, evoking a strong sense of empathy among the audience as we gain an appreciation for the commitment she has towards providing her helpless son education. In contrast, the closeups in Shanghai Express are used to emphasize Marlene Dietrich’s beauty. 

In both The Goddess and Shanghai Express, the female leads are women who are considered the property of the bad men in each film. While the mother only agreed to stay with the villain to avoid being caught by a police officer, she was bothered by the man for much longer than Shanghai Lily was. The circumstances were entirely different for each woman, though both were objectified and used by the men. While Shanghai Lily was stuck with Henry Chang (Warner Oland) because she was trying to save the man she loved, one could argue that the mother ended up stuck with the bad man due to trying to save her son by trying to make money as a prostitute to raise him. Ultimately, each villain is killed due to characters being fed up with their evildoings. While in The Goddess, the mother killed The Boss with a glass bottle and was sentenced to prison, Anna May Wong’s character in Shanghai Express killed the villain with a knife and escaped.