Review of Waterloo Bridge (1940) by Jessie J — 26 Mar 2009

Tragic and beautiful when you watch it young, but when you get older and look back at all these fundamentalist virgin-type stories you start to look at the social mechnism behind it and maybe question: if this lady is so concerned with her purity why couldn't she find a better job, say, a nurse during the war? And if she really cares about her lover couldn't she go to the church and do the confession and perhaps have all the forgiveness and start it anew? I mean all these possibilities might still exist in an actual society.

This story is immensely celebrated in China, coz it just resonates with millions of Chinese opera stories of tragic women defending their honor at all costs. It was a common practice to erect monuments for chaste women who committed suicide or remained unmarried for their husbands, whereas at the same time a civil servant or scholar was supposed to kill themselves if the dynasty changed.

There was a time when such practices were beautiful and necessary, but for those who believe in the holiness of life itself, or have seen things from other angles, it might invite a suspicious eye. --- but of course, ballet stories often depict ladies as such too, then let it be categorized as semi-religious ethic romance.

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