The Red Detachment of Women

The Red Detachment of Women (1961)

红色娘子军

Wu Qionghua, a house maid, is abused by a cruel warlord until she joins a troop of women soldiers.

Date of release
1961-01-30
TMDB
6.6 / 10 (9)
Runtime
1h 50m
Genres
War, Drama
Director
Xie Jin

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Awards: 1 · Nominations: 0. Including: Hundred Flowers Award for Best Picture

The Red Detachment of Women is a 1961 Chinese war film by Xie Jin based on a script by Liang Xin. It is set in the 1930s and involves two peasant women who go into warfare. The cast includes Zhu Xijuan, Wang Xingang, Xiang Mei, Jin Naihua, Chen Qiang, and Niu Ben.

Production History

There was a strong desire to produce works of dance and film within the years before and after the 1961 film, with a particular interest in these artistic practices as performed by women. The film was then developed to promote the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), its ideology and the strength of women during the Chinese Civil War. There was a particular interest in film during and after the cultural revolution due to its popularity as a medium.

By the mid-1960s, the individual authors associated with The Red Detachment of Women began to lose prominence, replaced by a new model of collective authorship aligned with Cultural Revolution ideals. This shift emphasized mass participation, though it coincided with increasing involvement from state figures like Jiang Qing.

The Peking opera version of The Red Detachment of Women, despite being scripted and filmed in 1972, never gained the same recognition as the ballet. Although both versions originated between late 1963 and early 1964, the opera’s development was less publicized and more fraught. Its libretto underwent many revisions, several of which were rejected by Jiang Qing.

Early official accounts of the ballet’s creation emphasized the collective nature of the production and the challenge of adapting existing material—including a feature film and local Hainan opera—into ballet. The creative team conducted field research in Hainan in 1964, drawing on local performers and traditions.

From its debut on National Day in October 1964, the ballet continued to evolve, even after it was officially recognized as a model work in 1966–67. Variations in choreography, character portrayal, and staging occurred throughout its performance history.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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