Two Stars in the Milky Way (), also translated Two Stars on the Silver Screen and known as An Actor and an Actress, is a 1931 film directed by Shi Dongshan for the United Photoplay Service (UPS). Based on the eponymous novel by Zhang Henshui, it stars Violet Wong as a country girl who, after being discovered by the Milky Way Film Company, rises to stardom through a Cantonese opera. She begins a romance with her co-star, portrayed by Jin Yan, who pushes her aside after being reminded of his filial obligations.
The first sound film produced by UPS, Two Stars in the Milky Way featured extensive scenes of music and dance, with dialogue presented through intertitles and songs recorded to a separate medium. The screenplay, adapted by Zhu Shilin, featured several departures from the novel in its setting and plot. It also featured elements of metafilm, presenting a self-reflexive take on the filmmaking process as well as cameos by UPS's crew and talent. After six months of production and an extensive advertising campaign, the film premiered on 13 December 1931. It is one of few surviving works of early Chinese cinema, though its soundtrack has been lost.
Plot The composer Li Xudong lives in a rural villa with his daughter Yueying. One day, a production crew from the Milky Way Film Company arrives in the area to shoot their new film. They overhear Yueying singing to her father, and follow the sound of her voice to the family home. Director Gao Qi, enchanted by her voice, suggests that she be cast in a future production. Under the premise of using the home as a shooting location, the crew make the family's acquaintance. Over the coming days, Yueying grows intrigued by the film's star, Yang Yiyun.
Milky Way sends director Wang to attend a charity performance in which Yueying will perform. Greatly impressed, he offers her a starring role in his upcoming film Love's Sorrow in the Eastern Chamber. The Lis relocate to Shanghai, where Yueying begins work. Taking the role of Consort Mei, she is cast alongside Yang Yiyun as Emperor Xuanzong, her character's romantic interest. After they finish filming the climactic opera, the crew rushes onstage in celebration.
After the conclusion of the shoot, Yueying and Yiyun realize that they have fallen in love. He invites her to dine at the Cathay Sports Club, after which they go mini-golfing. On the course, Yiyun is approached by a woman who claims to have been searching for him, much to Yueying's dismay. When she strikes Yueying with a golf ball, they begin fighting, and Yueying storms off. Yiyun later explains that the woman, Chunping, was merely an old friend. Yueying makes him promise to avoid such women in the future.
Several months later, Yiyun takes Yueying to a banquet commemorating the première of Love's Sorrow in the Eastern Chamber. The two open the festivities with a tango, with Milky Way's crew and talent musing that they are a perfect match. Later, Yiyun and Yueying embrace in the garden. News of this spreads rapidly, greatly pleasing Yueying's father. Gao Qi, however, takes Yiyun aside and warns him against continuing the relationship, reminding him that he has already taken a wife chosen by his mother.
Yiyun realizes that, regardless of his romantic feelings, he could never make Yueying a second wife. He heads home, where is visited by the spectre of his mother, who reminds him of his filial duty to honour his parents' wishes. He thus calls Chunping, asking her to make a sacrifice. When the Lis arrive at Yiyun's home, they see the two kissing. A heartbroken Yueying is consoled by her father, who says that they will leave the evils of the city and return to the countryside.
Years later, an aged Yiyun travels to Yueying's countryside home. He stares at the door, but dares not enter, as she sings a mournful song by her father's empty rocking chair.
Production Between May and September 1931 at Shanghai Studio Two, United Photoplay Service (UPS) adapted the novel Two Stars in the Milky Way by Zhang Henshui, which had been serialized in the Huabei Huabao between 1928 and 1929.; Shi Dongshan served as director; he had previously produced a series of melodramas and costume dramas. Zhu Shilin served as screenwriter, while Zhou Ke was cinematographer.
Two Stars in the Milky Way was UPS's first attempt to make a sound film. Sound technology had gained popularity through imported works, and the Mingxing Film Company had recently employed it for Sing-Song Girl Red Peony (1931). Ultimately, UPS employed a hybrid of silent and sound techniques. Intertitles, presented in an art deco font, were provided in Chinese and English to provide exposition and communicate dialogue.; Sound-on-disc technology, meanwhile, was used for the soundtrack, with phonographic recordings being played at certain points during screening. As with other early Chinese sound films, particular prominence was given to singing; while dialogue was presented through intertitles, songs were presented with audio.
Four musicians were credited as musical advisors for Two Stars in the Milky Way. The film's Cantonese items were overseen by Gao Yupeng, a prominent yangqin musician. Western-style music was provided by Li Jinhui and used for the two revue scenes as well as the tango; he also provided the film's theme music. Further music was provided by Xiao Youmei, the president of the National Institute for Music. The tango was accompanied by the Carlton Theatre Orchestra, under conductor . Support was provided by a singing-and-dancing troupe called the UPS Follies; this troupe was trained by Li Jinhui's daughter, Minghui, and had begun as the Bright Moon Song and Dance Troupe. It consisted mostly of girls between the ages of fifteen and nineteen.
The lead female role was played by Violet Wong, a singer who had toured with the Lis.; Screenwriter Zhu recalled that Wong had greatly resembled the "innocent young protagonist who gains fame through her distinctive singing and dancing", such that viewers perceived the film as a biopic.quoted in and translated by In an interview, Wong described herself as having worked tirelessly researching Cantonese opera, as a result of which UPS described her as "breathing new life and voice into the show".quoted in and translated by Yang Yiyun was portrayed by Jin Yan, who had previously appeared in such UPS films as Love and Duty and The Peach Girl (both 1931) and gained a reputation for his debonair good looks. Further credits for the film included Wang Cilong, a director with UPS, as the eponymous Director Wang; as Director Gao; Ye Juanjuan as Chunping; Zong Weigeng, credited as V. K. Chang, as Li Xudong; and Liu Jiqun as an assistant director.;
Set pieces, designed by Fang Peilin, mixed art deco with traditional Chinese motifs. Contemporary reviews reported that 6,000 yuan (equivalent to ¥ in 2019) had been spent on set design, more than the total budgets of some contemporary films. Costumes varied, and included imperial garb as well as modern qipao.
Analysis Adaptational differences
Two Stars in the Milky Way was adapted from the eponymous novel by Zhang Henshui, a popular writer with the Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies school. As with earlier adaptations of novels in Chinese cinema, modifications were made during the process. Unlike in the novel, which began in Beijing, the film depicted its main characters as originating from southern China. This departure, underscored through the performance of the Cantonese-language song "Raindrops on a Banana Leaf" in the opening as well as other Cantonese music, capitalized on the popularity of the genre in contemporary China. It was also influenced by Luo Mingyou, the Hong Kong-born co-founder of UPS, as well as the touring experiences of the Lis' Bright Moon Troupe. Wong was herself Cantonese.
Two Stars in the Milky Way also departed from its source material in its framing. Where the novel had presented Li Yueying as coming from Beijing and drawing inspiration from popular media, the film has her discovered during location shooting in a rural area. This, Kristine Harris writes in her exploration of Two Stars in the Milky Way as a metafilm, emphasized the character's innate talent; the feminist scholar Qilun Han notes that it also allowed the film to draw from the cultural notions associated with these locales. At the same time, although the rural setting was more naturalistic, elements of foreign culture remain present, including a piano and a bust of Ludwig van Beethoven. A chorus line of majorettes led by Li Lili paired with an Egyptian-style dance, collectively replacing the novel's immortal fairy maiden performance, further highlights the cosmopolitanism of the setting. Such elements, the film scholar Bo Cheng writes, reflect a general tendency in early Chinese cinema to Europeanize novels during the adaptation process.
The types of films featured in Two Stars in the Milky Way also differed in the adaptation. Whereas the novel had depicted Li Yueying starring in modern melodramas, the film adaptation centred around the production of a Cantonese opera, scenes of which occupy ten minutes of the film's runtime. Such an adaptation, Harris notes, allowed the film to capitalize on the popularity of costume dramas while still maintaining its emphasis on modernity. It also offered the benefit of incorporating opera, a popular performance genre that was showcased in early Chinese sound films. The adapted opera, a romance based on the story of Emperor Xuanzong, had been widely performed in the two decades prior to the film's production, including by Wong during her time as a stage performer, and contemporary audiences would have recognized the parallels between Consort Mei and Li Yueying.
As with the novel, Two Stars in the Milky Way centred on its female protagonist and maintained her as a sympathetic figure. The stories differed, however, in their treatment of the male protagonist Yang Yiyun, who is depicted not as a philandering womanizer but rather as a man burdened by his moral obligations. This is emphasized, according to the film historian Qijun Han, by the inclusion of an arranged marriage that Yang must maintain which under the tenets of filial piety, despite not having any romantic interest in his wife. Rather than take Li as his second wife, he spurns her, pushing her away to protect her despite his true feelings. Such adaptations, according to Harris, not only allowed the film to better meet the expectations of censors but also ensured that all characters were presented sympathetically.
Self-reflexivity and metafilm Two Stars in the Milky Way has been described as a "movie about moviedom". Such films had been produced in the United States since at least 1908, and contemporary productions such as Show People (1928) and Showgirl in Hollywood (1930) had been imported to the Republic of China. Similar productions had been made locally by Mingxing (A Passionate Actress, 1926; An Amorous History of the Silver Screen, 1931) and Tianyi (The Female Movie Star, 1926; A Female Star, 1933). The link between Two Stars in the Milky Way and Show People was drawn explicitly, with UPS identifying its film as "China's Show People". Two Stars in the Milky Way thus included a level of self-reflexivity. Harris notes parallels between the film's protagonists and the fatherdaughter team of Li Jinhui and Li Minghui, who had gained prominence in 1920s Shanghai through their collaborations on stage and in recordings. Further reflexivity is evident in the film's cameos, which included not only the UPS directors Cai Chusheng, Sun Yu, and Wang Cilong, but also the actresses Chen Yanyan, Li Lili, Tang Tianxiu, and Wang Renmei.;