The Twin Bracelets () is a 1991 Hong Kong film directed by Huang Yu-shan. It stars Winnie Lau, Vivian Chan, and Roger Kwok. The film tells the deep bond between two coastal village teenage girls, their struggles to conform to their village's social norms and marital traditions, and the different paths they took when the inevitable comes.
The film won Best Original Song at the 11th Hong Kong Film Awards, for the song 'Return' (Chinese: 似是故人來), sung by Anita Mui.
Plot In 1990s Hui An, a remote coastal village of Fujian (a southern province of the People's Republic of China),John Charles, ibidem. the two female protagonists, Hsiu and Hui-hua, as they grow up together and become close friends under the strict patriarchal tradition of the local area. The film showcases the unique cultural features of women in Huidong, including their signature traditional costumes such as brightly colored headscarves, short jackets and thick silver belts, as well as their strict wedding customs.
To avoid falling into the traditional marital roles prescribed by rural society, Hsiu and Hui-hua make a formal vow to each other to become "sister-spouses" （姐妹夫妻）， They promised to remain unmarried and support each other for life. As the two girls grew up, the pressure from their families and the elders in the village also increased day by day. Hsiu eventually gave in to the expectations of his family. She believes that at this age, one should get married and be obedient to her husband.
The film details the complex traditional wedding ceremonies and community banquets that revolve around Hsiu 's marriage. Hui-hua was heartbroken because Hsiu 's engagement broke her vows. She was unwilling to surrender to the traditional marital obligations, so she committed suicide on Hsiu 's wedding night. After Hui-hua 's death, Hsiu had to adapt to her new life as a married woman alone in this conservative village.
When the film depicts the intimate scenes that show the closeness of the two young women who described their relationship as ‘sister-spouses’ (姐妹夫妻), their affection for each other is presented as a source of strength to resist the patriarchal social relations that dominate village society.When Hui-hua is finally required to accept submission to a husband, "the only way out for her is to run home to mother, who promptly condemns her action. The only person Hui-ha can call on for a spiritual boost and moral strength is her sister-spouse, Hsiu." (U.S.-China Review, Vol, 17, No. 3, 1993, p.22).
The formal language of the film Twin Bracelets, which was the second feature done by Huang Yu-shan, is a film. In terms of its filmic form, it is conventional cinema. It is narrative cinema, telling a story chronologically, without any flash backs. Its subject matter has made it an interesting and, in the eyes of some viewers, a controversial film.
As narrative cinema, Twin Bracelets departs, however, from the Western norm. It is Chinese. This is especially apparent in that the actresses occasionally rely to some extent on Chinese conventions of acting which a Western audience is hardly acquainted with. This has occasionally caused irritation. It is hard to tell who or what is to blame in this case. Is it Western rejection of other canons and conventions than their own? Is it the fact that the filmmaker chose to work with what the product information of the company describes as a "cast and crew of newcomers"?Product Information http://www.yesasia.com/us/the-twin-bracelets/1004000183-0-0-0-en/info.html ). Or the Chinese director's halfhearted reliance, at least in some scenes, on the conventions of the Chinese Opera which have seeped into film-making and, more crudely, into soap operas?
It is clear that these are acting conventions that Taiwanese, Hong Kong and mainland audience are familiar with, on account of innumerable films and soap operas that fulfill purposes of entertainment, distraction, and ideological indoctrination. They are stylized movements and gestures that long established convention invests with fixed meanings. And they reappear even in everyday situations (thus, outside television, drama, and film) as stereotyped behavior. Girls for instance have their peculiar movements that symbolize a need to express embarrassment or slight shame. The actresses utilize stylized physical gestures, such as xiūxiū (羞羞), to express internal conflict when characters confront moral expectations. These movements derive from traditional regional Chinese Opera conventions rather than modern Western naturalistic acting techniques.
There is nothing to be said against stylized acting. The anti-naturalist theater author and stage director Bert Brecht, who thought highly of Mei Lanfang, relied on it in his epic theatre. So did Brechtian film directors, most notably Daniele Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub (see Straub-Huillet ). What can be said against occasional reliance of Chinese conventions of acting in Huang Yu-shan‘s feature film is that this acting is not stylized enough and that it is integrated in what remains basically a naturalist film. Does it jar? Is the occasional use of conventional, stylized acting hardly noticed by Chinese audiences because it is considered as ‘normal’ and as a ‘naturalist’ representation of how young Chinese women may ‘act’? This remains open to debate.
Cast Winnie Lau as Hsiu Vivian Chan as Hui-hua Roger Kwok as Kuang Michael To as Hui-hua’s brother Wong Yat-fei as singing man Chung Yeung as Xiong Chow Tin-Dak as Zhen's husband Lily Liu as Hui-hua's mother Chan Wan-Yue as Hui-hua's sister-in-law Mak Yan-Wa as matchmaker Choi Ka-Lee as Mei Zhen
Production The film was produced by Cosmopolitan Film Productions Co., a Hong Kong-based company that formed part of the film production conglomerate run by the Shaw brothers who are the owners of the Shaw Brothers Studio.Cf. the article on Huang Yu-shan in: U.S.-China Review, Vol. 17, No. 3, 1993, p.22.
Awards +AwardDateCategoryNomineesResults11th Hong Kong Film Awards5 April 1992Best Original Film Song Composer: Lo Ta-yu Lyrics: Albert Leung Singer: Anita MuiWonFrameline 1619-28 June 1992Audience Award for Narrative FeatureTwin BraceletsWon
Critical reception S.L. Wei notes that "Twin Bracelets was shown at international film festivals."S. Louisa Wei, "Women’s Trajectories in Chinese and Japanese Cinemas," in: Kate E. Taylor (ed.), Dekalog 4: On East Asian Filmmakers. Brighton UK (Wallflower Press) 2011, p.29. It has "won the 1992 San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Film Festival Award for Best Feature."Marc Siegel, "Spilling Out onto Castro Street," in: Jump Cut, No. 41, May 1997, p.135. John Charles called Twin Bracelets "(a) somber, engrossing drama" that is "marred only by the inevitability of its narrative."John Charles, The Hong Kong Filmography, 1977-1997: a complete reference of 1,100 films produced by British Hong Kong studios. Jefferson, NC (McFarland) 2000, p.326 The film has been labeled a ‘lesbian’ film, but also a ‘feminist’ film. Some critics have also focused on what they took to be its ethnological aspects. Such aspects do indeed form the background of Zhaohuan Lu's short story ‘The Twin Bracelets’ (1986) which served as the basis of the film script written by the film director, Huang Yu-shan.See: Fran Martin, Backward Glances: Contemporary Chinese Culture and the Female Homoerotic Imaginary. Durham NC (Duke University Press) 2010, p.244. - Sara Friedman notes that the writer is a "Hui’an native" and that the story first appeared in the journal Fujian wenxue (Fujian Literature). See: Sara Friedman, Intimate Politics: Marriage, the Market and State Power in Southeastern China. Cambridge, MA (Harvard University Asia Center) 2006, p.289; p.314. – The author of the short story graduated in 1966 from Fujian Teachers’ College (Dept. of Chinese Language and Literature). For more information on Lu Zhaohuan see: http://www.3739.net/488545.htm . Huang Yushan who initially worked for Central Motion Picture Company (CMPC) and for the Shaw Bros. is a director who has made a choice in favor of independent film. In her life and work she is attached to feminism. According to Bérénice Reynaud, she is "one of the rare women to work in the Taiwanese film industry."Bérénice Reynaud, "Créteil’s ‘Oriental Films’ Section," in: Screen, Vol. 32, No. 4, 1991, p.442. – B. Reynaud works at the Calif. Institute of the Arts, "holding a joint appointment in the School of Film/Video and the School of Critical Studies." Prof Lai has called Huang Yu-shan "Taiwan's major feminist director."Lai Shen-chon (= Hsien-tsong Lai; Lai Xianzong), "A Glow of Art That Transcends the Floating World." [Alternative translation of the title of this essay: The Glory of Transcendent Art; the article is partly quoted in: Lin-zhen Wang (ed.), Chinese Women’s Cinema. Transnational Contexts. New York (Columbia University Press) 2011. - The Chinese version Chāoyuè fúshì de yìshù guānghuá was printed in: The Liberty Times; 3 Nov. 2005. - Also online: http://www.libertytimes.com.tw/2005/new/nov/3/life/article-1.htm) S.L. Wei sees Huang as "an important voice in Taiwanese women's cinema. The fact that her film Twin Bracelets received relatively much attention "enabled Huang to have in-depth discussions with American independent filmmakers and feminist directors. From then on she began to push consciously forward [with] films about women."S. Louisa Wei, ibidem.
Viewing Twin Bracelets as a lesbian film Discussing Twin Bracelets, a number of critics make lesbianism its main cause. Teri Silvio noted that Twin Bracelets "was seen as a ‘Lesbian film’ in the United States and by some people in Taiwan."Teri Silvio, "Lesbianism and Taiwanese Localism in The Silent Thrush," in: Fran Martin / Peter A. Jackson / Mark McLelland / Audrey Yue (eds.), Asia-Pacific Queer: Rethinking Genders and Sexualities. Urbana.IL (University of Illinois Press) 2008, p.232. The filmmaker, collaborating with Wang Chun-chi, explained it was due to "the way the film treats same-sex romantic love and friendship among women" that it was "taken as a Lesbian story" in the West.Huang Yu-shan and Wang Chun-chi, "Post-Taiwan New Cinema Women Directors and Their Films: Auteurs, Images, Language," in: Lin-zhen Wang (ed.), Chinese Women’s Cinema. Transnational Contexts. New York (Columbia University Press) 2011, p.141. And Vivian Price said that "the film’s representation of women rejecting oppression resembles the lesbian utopia envisioned in the West."Vivian Price, quoted by Huang Yu-shan and Wang Chun-chi, "Post-Taiwan New Cinema Women Directors and Their Films: Auteurs, Images, Language," in: Lin-zhen Wang (ed.), ibidem, p.142. Marie K. Morohoshi states in an interview that Twin Bracelets, just like another movie she mentions (The East is Red), has "the great gender bender thing going on throughout the film…or a subtext." In her view, the film "is so ‘clearly’ lesbian that it can’t be anything but lesbian."Ju Hui Judy Han (interviewer) with Marie K. Morohoshi, "Creating; Curating and Consuming Queer Asian American Cinema: An Interview with Marie K. Morohoshi," in: David L. Eng / Alice Y. Horn (eds.), Queer in Asian America. Philadelphia (Temple University Press) 1998, p.88. According to Vivian Ng, who resents the fact that "one of the women commit(s) suicide at the end of the story," the film does not present a positive image of lesbians.Vivian Ng, "China," in:Encyclopedia of Lesbian and Gay Histories and Cultures. New York (Garland Publishing Inc.) 2000, p.164. The same view is held by the filmmaker Paul Lee.Cf. the interview with Paul Lee, in: Gina Marchetti (ed.), From Tian'anmen to Times Square: Transnational China and the Chinese Diaspora on Global Screens, 1989-1997. Philadelphia PA (Temple Univ. Press) 2006, p.66.