Tears of the Red-Light District: A Century-Old Bone

In a coffin shop belonging to the Jubao Troupe in Beiping, sixteen-year-old Xia Tianyu suddenly opens her eyes to the sound of nails being hammered into a coffin. The cry for help that rises in her throat is cut short when the brothel madam Cao Bao smashes her tobacco pipe against the wooden boards. At the same time, Tong Daxiang, just sold into a brothel, clutches her torn contract and charges toward a corner, while at the feet of the brothel servants, Li Lingyun's nails dig deep into the blue bricks amid a pool of blood. The fates of the three women become entangled in the moldy rains of 1937. From being buried alive in a coffin to the stench of burning flesh beneath a branding iron, from being trampled under customers' boots to sisters secretly slipping each other half a steamed bun, they count the copper coins they earn from clients amid the slurs of “salt pork,” and glimpse the light in one another's eyes as the hanging ropes sway.