The Goddess

11/30/2025

There is something really quite poignant about this story of a young Chinese mother who finds herself trapped in a scenario that offers her little chance of liberation. She (Ruan Lingyu) is trying to bring up her baby son by working in a brothel. When the police raid that one evening, she darts down an alleyway and seeks shelter in what she doesn’t appreciate is the home of “Zhang” (Zhang Zhizhi). He’s a bully and an opportunist gambler who allows her the sanctuary of his home for a few seconds, but boy does she pay for that over the next few years as he avails himself of her body and her money, whilst ensuring her cooperation by threatening to sell her baby. As he grows up though, she determines that his must be a better life and so she scrimps and saves to get him into a private school.