A Chinese Silent Kung Fu Movie comes to Atlanta

Film Studies at Emory Presents “Red Heroine” with Live Musical Accompaniment by the Devil Music Ensemble

By Wanda Yang Temko

Edited and Produced by Wanda Yang Temko

Atlanta, GA – Red Heroine is the only surviving extant Chinese silent “Kung Fu” film left from the silent era and is a prime example of the terrifically popular Chinese swordplay genre (wuxia pian). A band of outlaws raids a village and kidnaps a maiden, causing the death of the young woman's grandmother. The captive maiden is rescued by a mysterious Daoist hermit and reemerges three years later as a full-fledged warrior, flying to the sky to revenge her grandmother's death. The film shows a young woman's transformation from abject victim to resolute warrior.

The Devil Music Ensemble (DME) will be performing their new original score live to the film this Sunday. WABE's Wanda Yang Temko spoke with Matthew Bernstein, the Chair of Emory University's Film Studies Department, and Brendon Wood, a member of DME.

(Support for WABE's Arts and Cultural Programming is provided in part by the Savannah College of Art and Design, Atlanta Campus.)