The Lady From Shanghai (1947)
Shanghai and Shang Hai (go-to-the-sea): A review of The Lady From Shanghai
Director Orson Welles’s film noir stars Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth.
The Lady from Shanghai, an American film noir, starts with a classic stunned-by-a-femme-fatale[1] scene followed by confounding and intriguing criminal plots. We are invited to enter the protagonist Michael O’Hara’s consciousness through his narration at the beginning of the film in which the opening scene preludes his engagement of somehow blind-to-him conspiracy.
Shanghai is mentioned trivially in the ambiguous background account of the stunner, Elsa Bannister. The film seems to have nothing to do with Shanghai anymore besides the exotic scene of a Chinese opera house. Then why is the film named The Lady from Shanghai, putting Shanghai in such an eye-catching and crucial position — in the title?
It was my confusion of the film title that propelled me to interpret the word Shanghai in a culturally-specific manner. This review sets out from Shanghai and shares my insights on the connection between shanghai and thematic development of the film. My readings of Shanghai, though highly likely to be a coincidental discovery, might bring a sense of ingenuity of the choice of shanghai.
This film was filmed in late 1946, when the world was recovering from the Second World War. Many third world countries were still in wartime such as the civil war in China. Against such a background, Shanghai, first of all, is a symbol of colonialism, inseparable and rising from the advancement of the nautical technology. Shanghai, as one of the first commercial ports in China, was forced to open up in 1843 under the pressure of the British Empire. Since then Shanghai developed exponentially with ostensible prosperity. The momentum was gradually lost as postcolonial era drew near. To those foreign settlers, Shanghai is the adventure of those outcasts where they conquered, made a fortune and finally lost. Shanghai is where they succeeded in establishing trading relationships and building a new city but never a home. Shanghai is intimate but mysterious, familiar but dubious. Thus, Shanghai, to some extent, is no longer a geographical terminology, but a representation of mental state involving ambition, freedom, possession, alienation, distrust, instability, ultimate decline and inaccessibility. Elsa’s connection to Shanghai foreshadows her inner world and destiny under her beauty face that is given impressive close-ups.
On the other hand, the belief of wealth as an edge to survival, the cruise from New York to San Francisco, the prodigal picnic-party on land in Mexico and the estranged sense of family (or home) echo with the image of colonists. It is not surprising that their colonists’ mentality unfolds as they reach the city. The city representing the material civilization built after the colonization serves as a stage for their savage, mendacious and unseen fight through lies and flawed law (problematic court). Ironically, Michael breaks the shady or ostensibly civilized fight through violence in the end.
Shanghai in Chinese consists of two characters: Shang meaning ‘go to’ or ‘on’ and Hai meaning ‘sea’[2]. It draws my attention on the significance of sea in the film. The film starts with shots on water and waves. Around one third part of the film centers on their relatively slowly-paced voyage and the main criminal plot afterwards seems to speed up. Given the culture of voyage, sea is always a symbol of abundance, freedom, expanse and danger.
Michael’s go-to-the-sea (Shang Hai) originates from his desire and leads to his gradual involvement in the social register where he does not belong to and an underlying criminal web. This resembles the story of sirens and Michael is the mesmerized sailor. It also indicates that Elsa is the one who secretly tries to hold control. Michael’s allegory about sharks during the picnic also suggests the nature of the main characters and the ending of the story—‘there wasn’t one of them sharks in the whole crazy packs that survived’.
Shang Hai, interwoven with allegories within nautical culture, implies the basic structure of the film noir and highlights the one of the theme of this film — engulfed desire in human nature.
[1] A term used by Pippin, R. B. (2011) in ‘Agency and Fate in Orson Welles’s The lady from Shanghai’.
[2] This is an interesting coincidental discovery only.
