Myriad of Lights
Encyclopedia
Myriad of Lights also translated as Lights of Ten Thousand Homes, is a 1948 Chinese film
directed by Shen Fu and starring Shangguang Yunzhu, Hu Yin and Lan Ma.
The film is selected as one of the 100 best 20th-century Chinese films by Asia Weekly. It also ranks #91 in Hong Kong Film Academy's poll of the 100 best Chinese-language films.
. The father, Hu Zhiqing, is a modest office worker. He finds out one day in a letter that his mother and his brother's family are coming down from the provinces to join him, because living conditions are tough in the countryside. His wife cautions him that this means household expenses will increase greatly.
Spiralling inflation
makes it difficult for Hu to feed the nine people in this extended family. They have to cramp themselves in a small, rented apartment. Things become even more difficult after he is dismissed from his job by Qian Jianming, a former friend. Hu cannot find a new job and his younger brother has to work odd jobs on the streets. His wife has a quarrel with his mother and then suffers a miscarriage
. He is mistaken as a pickpocket and gets beaten up in a public bus. Distraught, Hu gets run over accidentally by Qian's chauffeur
.
Hu lies in a hospital in a coma
for days. His mother and wife search frantically for him, and are reconciled in the process. As they meet again in their old apartment after Hu finds his way home, each declares that he or she has been at fault. But the film ends with Hu's realization that none of them is really at fault; it is only the hard times which is making things exceptionally difficult.
Cinema of China
The Chinese-language cinema has three distinct historical threads: Cinema of Hong Kong, Cinema of China, and Cinema of Taiwan. Since 1949 the cinema of mainland China has operated under restrictions imposed by the Communist Party of China's State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television and...
directed by Shen Fu and starring Shangguang Yunzhu, Hu Yin and Lan Ma.
The film is selected as one of the 100 best 20th-century Chinese films by Asia Weekly. It also ranks #91 in Hong Kong Film Academy's poll of the 100 best Chinese-language films.
Plot
The film begins with a small family of four (including a servant and a young daughter) in post-war ShanghaiShanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
. The father, Hu Zhiqing, is a modest office worker. He finds out one day in a letter that his mother and his brother's family are coming down from the provinces to join him, because living conditions are tough in the countryside. His wife cautions him that this means household expenses will increase greatly.
Spiralling inflation
Inflation
In economics, inflation is a rise in the general level of prices of goods and services in an economy over a period of time.When the general price level rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services. Consequently, inflation also reflects an erosion in the purchasing power of money – a...
makes it difficult for Hu to feed the nine people in this extended family. They have to cramp themselves in a small, rented apartment. Things become even more difficult after he is dismissed from his job by Qian Jianming, a former friend. Hu cannot find a new job and his younger brother has to work odd jobs on the streets. His wife has a quarrel with his mother and then suffers a miscarriage
Miscarriage
Miscarriage or spontaneous abortion is the spontaneous end of a pregnancy at a stage where the embryo or fetus is incapable of surviving independently, generally defined in humans at prior to 20 weeks of gestation...
. He is mistaken as a pickpocket and gets beaten up in a public bus. Distraught, Hu gets run over accidentally by Qian's chauffeur
Chauffeur
A chauffeur is a person employed to drive a passenger motor vehicle, especially a luxury vehicle such as a large sedan or limousine.Originally such drivers were always personal servants of the vehicle owner, but now in many cases specialist chauffeur service companies, or individual drivers provide...
.
Hu lies in a hospital in a coma
Coma
In medicine, a coma is a state of unconsciousness, lasting more than 6 hours in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light or sound, lacks a normal sleep-wake cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. A person in a state of coma is described as...
for days. His mother and wife search frantically for him, and are reconciled in the process. As they meet again in their old apartment after Hu finds his way home, each declares that he or she has been at fault. But the film ends with Hu's realization that none of them is really at fault; it is only the hard times which is making things exceptionally difficult.
Cast
- Shangguan Yunzhu as Lan Youlan
- Lan Ma as Hu Zhiqing
- Hu Yin as Old Mrs Hu
- Shen Yang as Hu Chunsheng
- Qi Heng as Qian Jianming
- Gao Zheng as Xiaozhao
- Wei Jiang as Zhu Zhihao
- Li Wanqing as Ah Zhen