THE WOMAN KNIGHT OF MIRROR LAKE FEATURES CHINA’S FIRST FEMINIST
When Qiu Jin (played by Huang Yi) was in infancy in 1881, she refused footbinding three times as too painful. But that started her thinking about the need for women’s liberation, which could only occur if centuries of dynastic rule were toppled for a more equalitarian political system. At the film’s beginning, she is captured and put on trial for treason. Flashbacks then provide the context, notably how China was defeated and exploited by other countries, particularly at the time of the abortive Boxer Rebellion. She grows up as an educated female, marries an ambitionless rich man, Ting-Jun (played by Kevin Cheng), and insists that he get a government job so that she will be closer to the center of power. She observes abject poverty in Beijing and uses her jewels to free a child bride taken into slavery who later becomes her loyal companion Fusheng (played by Rose Chan). While studying in Japan during 1904, she befriends Restoration Society dissident Xu Xilin (played by Alex To) and returns to China with the aim of overthrowing the dynastic system. She becomes headmaster of the Daitong College, the first mixed-gender school, whose mission is to give women the chance to receive an education. Under the pretence that the school is training civil servants, the curriculum prepares students for revolution against the Manchu dynasty. After an ill-planned takeover of the capitol of Shaoxing Province, including a well-choreographed battle scene, she is captured, interrogated by outgoing Provincial Governor Gui Fu (played by Lam Suet) and incoming Li Zhong-yue (played by Anthony Wong). She refuses to divulge names of her conspirators, is tortured, and then executed. Her death in 1907, four years before the revolution is memorialized in the film, which is directed by Herman Yau. Among various Chinese films commemorating the 1911 revolution, The Woman Knight of Mirror Lake, also known as Qui Jin, is the best so far. MH