Chinese Film History: "The Life of Wu Xun" (1950)

On "Communist China's First Banned Film"

The Life of Wu Xun (1950) takes on a certain infamy among Western scholars of Chinese film as "the first film banned by Communist China." This is because the film played in theaters for a little bit and then people started grumbling about its portrayal and fetishization of poverty. Mao Zedong himself eventually chimed in with his own editorial, agreeing that the film ignored the primary contradictions of the feudal society in which it was set, and the film got pulled from theaters. Western cinephiles haven't recovered ever since. 

When I try explaining this film and its controversy to uninitiated Americans I make a comparison to the glut of "social justice" films currently gunking up our cineplexes, which in fact have nothing to do with anyone receiving justice, but rather are just weepy pessimistic stories to make rich liberals feel good about themselves (picture any movie that features a Black actor staring directly into the camera and weeping giant crocodile tears. I won't name names because I don't have to; everybody knows what kind of movies I'm talking about).

Well China got their own version of that kind of movie right after the Communist revolution with The Life of Wu Xun. The characters suffer in grueling feudal poverty (essentially slavery) and yes they weep directly into the camera. Meanwhile the Qing Dynasty feudal lords are fierce and brutal (within the film's universe they're actually far more interesting and dynamic than the ostensible heroes). Citizens of New China weren't having it. They understandably preferred rousing action pictures where Japanese occupiers got gunned down and Nationalist traitors got their butts handed to them. Eventually, as mentioned above, Mao voiced his public agreement with the film's critics and that was the death knell in China for The Life of Wu Xun. It lives on merely as a Jeopardy-esque trivia question and a topic for Western film critics to pearl-clutch about. Good riddance. 

APPENDIX: I also subtitled a short Chinese documentary that explains why this film was so despised; you can watch it here: youtu.be/pHxIL9V8PDk?si=D8kmoVVRq0UQr7wQ