The Pearl Necklace

Hou Yao's screenplay for Great Wall, directed by Li Zeyuan, transplants Maupassant's The Necklace to a Westernized Shanghai middle class and then refuses the French ending. Accountant Wang Yusheng and his wife Xiuzhen rent a pearl necklace for a party; a guest hires a thief. To replace the jewels Yusheng embezzles, is caught, and goes to prison. After his release he discovers the man behind the theft. Confession, a job, the house bought back: Hou adds a culprit and a reconciliation Maupassant never allowed. Parallel editing on the hunt, and a factory-gate shot that quotes the Lumières. One of the earliest surviving Chinese features.