Cinema
狂流
Cheng Bugao · 1933
Synopsis
The Yangtze overflows and a village fights the flood. Liu Tiesheng, a schoolteacher caught up in the flooding, clashes with a rigid administration and helps his people survive, according to Sixth Tone. According to Chinawriter, the film also shows peasants in violent struggle against landlords; on the edge of the dyke, reports the Xinmin wanbao, the hero speaks of relief for the disaster victims.
Context
The film was released on 5 March 1933 according to Chinawriter; Xia Yan, who wrote his first screenplay there after entering the cinema, signed it with a pseudonym. For the flood scenes, Cheng Bugao took his crew to Wuhan to film the real flood, edited afterwards with staged close-ups, and Xia Yan added revolutionary intertitles to the silent film, according to the Xinmin wanbao. Chinawriter makes it the first left-wing committed film produced by Mingxing. The flood is that of 1931 according to Chinawriter and a study published in Études chinoises, and that of 1932 according to the Xinmin wanbao.
Who it is for
A silent film, best seen with some knowledge of the great Yangtze flood and of the militant Shanghai of the thirties; no French release is established.
Prizes and reception
Hailed at its Shanghai premiere as the beginning of a new path for Chinese cinema, according to Chinawriter.
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