The Curse of Quon Gwon: When the Far East Mingles with the West (1916)

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1. 

   HenkMul

   Working link (as of October 2023): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NV1ygZV9axU 6 months 1 week ago
2. 

   Fish_Beauty

   This film is incomplete. Two reels out of an original seven or eight survive. 4 years 11 months ago
3. 

   Siskoid

   Only two reels of The Curse of Quon Gwon have survived, some 35 minutes, but with some imagination, it still works and is thus more than an "important film artifact" - the earliest known indie film by a Chinese-American film maker, and one of the earliest pieces crafted by a female director. It's the story of a young Chinese couple, and the mostly westernized young woman's difficulties living with the young man's very traditional family. According to my research, we've lost the Chinese political context of the day, but arguably, this would have been a little opaque to modern audiences. Indeed, without the interstitial cards, it's difficult to fathom the "Unkind Woman"'s motivations, and those who have less familiarity with Chinese customs than I (a side-effect of watching so much Chinese cinema) may be confused by even more scenes. Still, the missing material seems to work in tandem with some of the film's surprising fantasy sequences to give it a nightmarish quality, which seems in keeping with the cursed idol of a god who, I imagine, is angry the leads have abandoned their heritage. I do love the music that was later composed for the presentation; it is extremely pretty. 5 years 5 months ago

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