Lushan Mountain movie still pulls on heartstrings
Print Edition
On one of the world’s most beautiful mountains stands one of China’s most special cinemas. It has run only one film for more than 20 years.
The 1980 blockbuster “Romance on Lushan Mountain” is regarded a milestone moment in entertainment, as it is the first China-made movie that included a kissing scene after reform and opening-up in the late 1970s.
It tells the story of a retired Kuomintang general’s daughter, who comes back from the US to visit Lushan Mountain and falls in love with the son of a Communist Party of China general. But screening of the film never ended and nor did the passion for them. More than 7 million viewers have watched the film since 1980 in the church-turned-cinema on the hillside of Lushan Mountain, east China’s Jiangxi Province, where the film was shot.
Half an hour before the movie starts, Dai Xu, a 24-year-old tourist from east China’s Anhui Province, queued to buy tickets. She and her mother then entered the cinema’s main hall, looking around the display.
On the walls hang stage photos of the movie’s hero and heroine in swimsuits, an introduction of the director and cast, and a 2002 certificate awarded by the Guinness World Records for the longest initial-run of a film in one cinema. Old-age videotapes, pictures, damaged film copies and original scripts are displayed on the walls.
“I was curious to see why this film made such a profound impression on my mother. This time I accompanied her to Lushan and review the legendary movie,” Dai said.
A total of 360 soft seats quickly fill up. The last row of seating is designated to couples. At least 20 people who don’t have seats say they prefer to stand at the back than wait for the next screening.
“There is no vacant seat in the auditorium for the first screening every night, except during mid-winter,” said Qian Yisu, manager of the cinema.
A one-piece dress, bell-bottoms, sunglasses, long curly hair and swimsuits, the heroine’s fashion and free pursuit of love, coupled with the backdrop of Lushan’s picturesque landscape, were a hit across China back in 1980 and attracted more than 100 million views across the country that same year, according to Qian.
Wang Bingru, a scholar who participated in the shooting of the film, said that when the movie was released, tourist numbers in Lushan broke records.
“Previously, the mountain mainly served as a rehabilitation center for construction workers. People started swarming into Lushan after 1980. There were no vacant rooms in hotels, so many even slept in parks,” Wang said.
The cinema was originally built as a church in 1897. It was turned into a movie theater in the 1960s. Cinemas nationwide saw fewer audiences in the 1990s as television entered the ordinary Chinese household. However, this was not the case with “Romance on Lushan Mountain.”
The film has been shown in the cinema more than 40,000 times. According to the Lushan Scenic Area Management Bureau, around 250 out of every 10,000 visitors to Lushan Mountain watch the film.
Wu Hui, a 57-year-old retired projectionist, is among the most enthusiastic fans of the movie. She remembers all the heroine’s costumes and lines.
“She changes a costume every three minutes on average and her dazzling dresses surprise me. I didn’t imagine that people could lead such a wonderful life,” Wu said.
In her memory, people living in the early 1980s usually wore black, white, grey or dark blue clothes with simple designs. She secretly had a perm after watching the movie for the first time.
“My mother ran after me with scissors around the yard,” Wu laughed.
The taboo-breaking kiss essentially influenced a change in attitudes toward love and marriage in Wu’s generation. In 1981, Wu met her husband Yang Lin.
“Boys were traditionally supposed to chase after girls. The movie told me that it was possible to do the opposite. So I asked him a question, ‘Would you come home with me and play the role of my boyfriend?’ And he agreed,” Wu said.
They met each other’s parents at the 2,190th screening of the film. By the 2,920th screening, they had entered into marriage, and by the 3,902nd screening, their first baby had been born.
“In addition to fashion and romance, I think the movie shows the true face of a period in Chinese history. It was a time without many entertainment choices. It was a time with pure love and dream,” said Dong Zequn, a 59-year-old tourist from Wuhan.
“There was no movie in my heart that could replace ‘Romance on Lushan Mountain.’”
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