Scenes 21 to 30
Chiang asks mother Song for Meiling's hand. The mother consents on three conditions: he must be faithful to Meiling, divorce his current wife and become a Christian. Chiang vows to fulfil the first two. As for the third, he begs for time, but promises to start reading the bible. Ailing hands him over a bible and mother Song tells him, that her late husband Charlie wrote down something in it. If he would read the bible closely he should find it.
Chiang is mustering the troops for the Northern Expedition. We see him reading aloud passages from the bible, interwoven with scenes of his White Terror. [The scene is ambivalent about Christianity: it contrasts parts of the bible with Chiang's bloody deeds: did he use Christianity as an excuse – citing the apocalypse –, or was it restraining him from worse – citing the Sermon on the Mount?]
A boy and an elderly man enter a riksha in front of Qingling’s house after waving her goodbye. She witnesses how the riksha is blown up by a grenade thrown from a by-driving car. [Obviously the Nationalists suspected a Communist conspiracy and tried to intimidate Qingling]. The next day Qingling goes public by denouncing the White Terror [1927] and officially resigns her membership of the Nationalist Party. [Lenin’s smashed photo and a torn red flag are in the background]. As she walks out from the press conference, demonstrators on the left and right carry Sun's picture: on the one side Communists, on the other Nationalists. Both groups shout and attack each other, claiming Sun's heritage for their respective part.
Qingling is asked by her relatives why she is opposing Chiang. Her brother-in-law, H. H. Kung, complains about the strikes organised by the Communists because they are no good for his business. Ailing tells Qingling that Meiling is about to marry Chiang Kai-shek. Qingling gets angry and denounces Chiang, but Meiling reminds Qingling that when she had married Sun, the one-time Lincoln of China, she always had supported her. Now that she is going to do the same with today’s Lincoln of China, her sister should not interfere. Qingling coldly replies that Chiang is but the Napoleon of Ningbo [Chiang's hometown] and could not be compared to Sun. Meiling, hurt by this reaction, mutters that Qingling only seems to fear being replaced by her as China's First Lady. Ailing adds: with men there is not good and bad but only strong and weak! The scene ends with Qingling's sitting alone in one room and the rest of the family in the other.
A riksha is running along a quay. It is Qingling's mother coming to bid Qingling farewell who is about to leave for Russia to avoid confrontation with Chiang. The mother wonders why the two other sisters have not arrived, but Qingling obviously had not informed them about her departure. Even her mother does not know where she is going, but she reminds her daughter that the unity of the family is the most important thing. Qingling answers that there is more than family matters involved. She sees the happiness of the Chinese people endangered. The mother replies, that if she even had not been able to achieve happiness for herself, how could she do so for the whole of China then? Qingling leaves but promises to return.
Chiang and Meiling celebrate their wedding. They perform a triple kowtow in front of Sun's picture. At the following party, the servants exchange rumours. One is that the pearls on Meiling's shoes were stolen from the late empress dowager Cixi's crown, the other one is that Qingling re-married in Russia.
Qingling is lonely in Russia. [The whole scene is in cold blue and all is covered with snow]. She takes out the Russian newspaper she had put in her shoes to warm her feet and sees a picture of Chiang's marriage with Meiling. On the same page there is an article about herself having allegedly re-married in Russia which upsets her. She walks over to the window. It starts snowing and she watches a beggar boy at the feet of a large monument. Then she starts daydreaming of the boy shouting "Mummy". Her being childless makes her feel even more lonely.
Japanese troops are entering China [1931]. Qingling says from the off that Chiang preferred first to fight against the Communists and only then against the Japanese, and she cites Sun: "Internal wounds are harder to heal then external wounds." Then a train is shown running through a landscape: Qingling is returning from Russia to see her dying mother.
Mother Song's end is near. All three sisters are shortly reunited and try to re-live former harmonious times by playing the theme song together on the musical instruments they learned to play in youth: Ailing on the violin, Qingling and Meiling side by side on the piano. Flashbacks show again earlier scenes when the whole Song family [but for the other siblings not introduced in this movie] was together. Then their mother dies peacefully.
All three sisters are together to celebrate the moon festival but the weather is to bad to see the moon. Chiang also joins the party. H. H. Kung asks Qingling to influence the workers to end the strikes. Since the discussion switches to English, Chiang – who knows no English – feels humiliated and gets angry. Inevitably it comes to a dispute about politics between Qingling and Chiang. In the end Qingling leaves the house. As the servants clean the table and the family is gone, the weather clears up and the moon appears.
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