Two poor sisters are separated while very young. The father takes the more beautiful one, Er Bao, with him to Shanghai, because he's fleeing the law, while the other sister, Da Bao is left behind with the mother in the village to experience a life of hardship.
Years later, Da Bao's husband is ill and cannot work. Da Bao is driven to moonlight as a wet nurse - a woman who breastfeeds the children of the rich. She goes to a rich woman's house when - surprise - the lady of the house is none other than Er Bao, who is now a snotty, spoiled general's wife.
While working for Er Bao in the city, Da Bao receives word that her husband has now had a severe accident and cannot work. Realizing her family's lives are on the line, she asks Er Bao for a month's wages. Er Bao coldly refuses, and Da Bao resorts to stealing. But she gets caught, and accidentally pushes the woman who caught her a bit too hard. The woman stumbles on something, falls, and dies. Da Bao is taken to the magistrate's office for her crime, when - surprise - it turns out he is none other than her long lost father.
What will become of Da Bao? Will she and her estranged father and sister recognize each other? And even if they do, what then?
The plot is very good. The film makes a constant point about rich/poor and, later on, the status of women when Da Bao laments that, "Had I been beautiful too, then maybe I would have been the general's wife." The ending is a bit anti-climatic by our standards, since there is no big bang, really.
The only real drawback, however, is how overplayed Die Hu is in her portrayal of the two sisters, since she plays both roles. As the poor Da Bao, she is utterly and often times tiringly pathetic in her plight; as the haughty, rich Er Bao, she is almost comic in her meanness. The other actors ham it up as well, to quite a laughable degree. It probably went over really well with audiences of the time, but from our perspective, it is very challenging to continue working with the film. A few times I broke down and had to chuckle at it.
If you can ignore that, however, you will see a rather good piece of drama. My favourite scene was when Da Bao's mother, having come from the village to visit her daughter, now in custody, gets down on her knees in front of the guards to beg them to let her see her daughter. Call me a softie, but things like that get to me. Of course, it did not take long for the drama to once again reach epic proportions of silliness in the very next scene.
Good movie. Watch it if you find it.
