(an unflattering image of Li Xianglan, so you know what's coming . . an unflattering portrayal of her life story)
(these toy trains with miniature Japanese flags appear from time to time, indicating that Chen is using some 'avant-garde' elements in her film)
Many short film clips accompanied by narration are thrown at the viewer purportedly showing the family history of Yoshiko. The viewer is misled into thinking they are actually seeing Yoshiko, her father, her mother, the house they live in, etc, when actually these clips are 'cut and paste' from many old Japanese movies (there being no film-clips of the actual Yamaguchi family extant). Chen is using sleight of hand to 'trick' the viewer, and to some people this may be a minor fault, whereas to others it is disappointing and portends further 'tricks' throughout the movie.
In those instances where the real Yoshiko does appear in a clip, it is cut from one of her movies and used by Chen in another somewhat deceptive way: as when we see Yoshiko walking through a bombed out Shanghai building in the film "China Nights" while the voice-over misleads the viewer into thinking this is Yoshiko's destroyed High School. In another clip we see a movie actress in the film "My Nightingale" being described as Madame Podresov, Yoshiko's first voice-teacher.
But I don't want to get too picky about all this because Chen does show scenes of real life in Manchuria and gives an impression of how it was at the time.
But then the narrator starts telling other fibs about Yoshiko's life. Such as when Yoshiko moves to the Pan family in Beijing, unrelated movie-clips of Yoshiko's flirtatious eyes appear and narrator-lady tells us "Fengtian had it's charms but Beijing was the big time, you just needed an in, and Pan Yugui knows everyone who's anyone, both Chinese and Japanese! Yoshiko could live with him, go to school with his daughters, and make connections". Chen neglects to tell the viewer that Yoshiko is 14yrs old at this point, and so the wordly narrator-talk is seriously out of place. You have to wonder how people like Chen can develop such negative feelings about Li Xianglan that they would imply Yoshiko was 'living with' Pan Yugui when in reality she lived with the Pan family while attending high-school.
One of the good things in the Chen film occurs next: the first of several scholar/experts appears and she is Aiko Yoshioka PhD, speaking about Yoshiko's father Fumio. Aiko says that Fumio was a mysterious man of high position who might have been working with Japanese Intelligence, also a powerful man who was close to pro-Japanese politicians. This is quite interesting information.
At about 6.5 minutes in, the narrator introduces "Yoshiko's Survival Guide to China" [where this came from I have no idea, but it is clearly 'putting words in Yoshiko's mouth' which never were there]:
By now one realizes what Chen is up to and why: at heart Chen is a Li Xianglan hater. She's decided that a deceptive Yoshiko has led a double-life from an early age. Chen does her dirty-work on Li Xianglan using out-of-context movie-clips in obviously deceptive ways. Shame on her for turning her art towards the dark side instead of remaining objective and truthful.
:to be cont'd:
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