The Movie "The Goddess"

The 1934 film 'The Goddess' is about the status of women in this backward society and the widespread kidnapping of people by a conservative morality, despite the prosperous Shanghai era. In the movie, I saw an insulting scene in which the camera was placed at the angle of the bully's crotch, and through the groin, I saw the heroine holding her son in fear and picking up things that had fallen from the ground. She never took her eyes off the bully.

This perspective metaphorically shows that in society at that time, men are as high as the sky, while women are only suitable for humble existence under men. The status of women for men is only a kind of exchange consumer goods; they can have the power to determine the fate of women.

At the same time, people are trapped in the conservative moral values reflected in one of the plots: the son is playing with the neighbor's child, but the neighbor tells his child not to play with the prostitute's child.

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The son from happy to sad expression immediately reflected. The reality is that in the child's world, there is no idea what is going on; he only knows that he is banished. Prostitutes were specially mentioned in that society, and many people still viewed them through colored glasses. Because they think it is not clean for prostitutes to sell their bodies, which is against traditional morality. Even if she has never hurt anyone, treating everyone is to keep smiling.

Instead, it was those around her who were continually gossiping and rejecting her simply because they felt her profession was dishonorable.

My argument is supported by the scholar Kristine Harris; He noticed:'When viewed alongside American melodramas and social conditions in Shanghai during the mid1930s, the Goddess certainly seemed to project a conservative mindset.' (Harris130) As Harris believes, the plot development of the film Goddess is to reflect and criticize social problems.

In a word, the conservative morality of that era, reflecting the dominance of women by men, had become famous. Also criticized at that time the society is full of dark and unfair atmosphere, a very realistic color.