In Istanbul, knife thrower John and dancer Song become a variety show attraction. When John’s former lover Gloria shows up, he goes blind. Song tends to him selflessly until fate strikes again... SHOW LIFE was the first of three films that Chinese-American actress Anna May Wong shot in Europe with Richard Eichberg. Although not free from clichés, Anna May Wong’s nuanced performances lent those films emotional depth and turned them into early examples of a more sensitive portrayal of Asian women in European cinema. Premiere of the reconstructed German version.
I saw the trade-show of SHOW LIFE, a German picture directed by Richard Eichberg, starring the little ex-laundry girl, ex-Hollywood actress. Anna May Wong, and I used to wonder if she would ever leave Hollywood to work with people who might appreciate her charm, for Hollywood seemed to be blind to the grace of the little creature. The American casting directors occasionally gave her small parts of Chinese serving maids, but she had to go to Germany to be made a star.
Paradoxical as it may sound, Anna May has gone to Germany only to be Americanized, for SHOW LIFE is full of the stock movie situations punctuated by large heads of the star.
Oswell Blakeston, Close Up, London, No. 6, December 1928
For German reviewers, SONG’s melodramatic narrative was seen as having a universal appeal, and its production and Wong’s performance were perceived as great contributions to Germany’s international film aspirations. The film publication Lichtbild-Bühne proclaimed: “This German film will, in its success, announce the glory of Anna May Wong throughout the world as one of the greatest film artists.“ The evening newspaper 8 Uhr-Abendblatt was more possessive: “Anna May Wong is ours now, and we won’t let her go again.” All of the reviews saw Wong’s performance as the centrepiece of the film. Noting the international influences to this co-production, Ernst Jäger wrote in the Film-Kurier: “All the collaborators agreed on the proceedings, all differences disappeared, since the film’s only intention is to serve the woman in front of the camera.”
Tim Bergfelder, in: “Film Europe” and “Film America”. Exeter, 1999
