Street Angel马路天使

Most of the film takes place in the working class alleyways, the longtang and shikumen of Shanghai, but the characters do escape momentarily—from poverty into the modern skyscrapers of tomorrow. They find themselves in a lawyer’s office, where the clicking mahjong tiles have been replaced by clacking typewriters. They’re confounded by bizarre, modern inventions like water dispensers, paper cups and radiators, and bumble through this unfamiliar world as M. Hulot would.

(They lean against a radiator)

But it’s down in the longtang that this movie literally sings. Zhou Xuan’s teahouse oldies, and her duets performed across the alleyways with her secret lover, brought audiences flooding back for more, and made the songs from “Street Angel” unforgettable anthems.