jhkp
I was crazy about this film! There were a few flaws (in my opinion), which I'll get to in a moment. But I found the film fascinating on a few levels. First, the heroine, Jade, is an amazing character. I can understand why MGM thought one of their own biggest stars, Katharine Hepburn, would excel in this role. Like Hepburn, she's a determined, headstrong, never-say-die type of character, who happens, also, to possess a good deal of feminine charm. After a minute or two, I wasn't very concerned about the fact that Hepburn was not Chinese. She was so very right, in temperament, for the role. It does take some time before the acceptance of Miss Hepburn as the character is total, but that does happen, a bit further down the line.Since this is a story of a woman character facing a brutal enemy in a war on her home turf, I'm surprised more people did not like it for that reason alone. (Since few war movies come at it from this angle - other than Gone With The Wind.) Moreover this is a very modern woman who resists the traditions of her upbringing and, because it needs to be done, leaves her village along with her husband and joins a band of resisters transporting heavy machinery across the country in the most grueling conditions - while she's pregnant! Though the film leaves it ambiguous as to whether these are Communists or Nationalists, one would be hard pressed not to be lost in admiration for their grit and guts. One day Jade decides she really needs to take a day or two off, as the baby is due, and proceeds to bear a healthy child who eventually is brought home by her in a large basket (the child having grown) she carries on her back.But this is not Jade's story, alone, it's much more of an ensemble piece about an entire family of farmers facing the invasion of the Japanese in the 1930's. Their various tribulations and joys are for the most part, grippingly and entertainingly depicted. The father and mother of this family (Jade's in-laws) are brilliantly played by Walter Huston and Aline McMahon. Turhan Bey, Henry Travers, Robert Bice, and Frances Rafferty also have major roles. A duplicitous character is played by Akim Tamiroff, his faithful wife by Jacqueline DeWit, and Travers' selfish wife by Agnes Moorehead. Hurd Hatfield plays the gentle, favored Third Son who becomes bloodthirsty and abhorrent to his parents.The film ranges very well from intimate human drama to spectacle and back again. The production design is really splendid, and the penultimate scenes of "scorched earth" are both heartbreaking and exhilarating. I marveled at what these people had to go through and how they faced it. It was truly grueling and incredible.As for Caucasian actors in Asian makeup. This is not a documentary. I believe the Chinese staged a production of Death Of A Salesman. And the Japanese had a very long-running stage production of Gone With The Wind. This particular film was a tribute by Americans to the spirit of another people, and I didn't find it inappropriate. Not that it works all the time, but overall it was carried off extremely well.As to the casting of Hepburn, someone said her New England accent was wrong for the part, but since, in real life, the characters would be speaking Chinese, not English, we're already suspending disbelief and her accent didn't bother me. She actually does an awesome job, and gets inside the role. There are few if any other white actresses of the time who would have been able to play the part at all. Hepburn not only plays it, but is excellent in it.Certain parts of the film are a little too broad, but these aren't frequent. Agnes Moorehead is very broad at first but she simmers down later and actually ends up being quite good. The marauding Japanese are played too broadly. The assault in the woods might have been even more effective if they had been played as grim and serious, rather than in a caricatured way, smiling, with clichéd comments, etc. In the book, this was a chilling scene. It's still effective in the film, but when a scene is horrific, it's not necessary to add a lot of "acting" to it. Frances Rafferty is great in the scene, by the way.Lionel Barrymore narrates the film and he has one of the most marvelous voices ever. His narration adds something significant to the film.When you have seen this motion picture you will feel like you have witnessed a truly human, emotional story, a piece of history, and it may leave you wondering about man's inhumanity to man, as it is one of the most unflinching films made during the war years. But it will give you hope and inspire you, as well.
kyrat
I's "yellow-face" like many Hollywood films before it & after it. Even knowing the history of all-Caucasia casting for films, I just could not get over it. It was not just one character. It was ALL of them. And the accents were just so horribly East Coast I couldn't get over it. I kept trying to pretend that maybe the merchant had married into the family which is why he had a Russian accent & look more like he was from Manchuria. Every time I saw a non-Asian person or heard them speak it jarred me from the picture.That said, it was an interesting piece about war, the horrors of war. The showing of how the brothers reacted (killed only because he had to whereas the other killed because he grew to enjoy it). Showing the "collateral damage" consquences of war - it's more than the killing or bombing. It's the raping of women, the starvation of children, the looting, the wanton destruction, the submission & humiliation of everyone. Also interesting to see were how people react: isolationist -not wanting to know/get involved; actively involved in resistance and appeasement and currying favor with the enemy.It was interesting as a piece of propaganda to demonize the Japenese and to drum up support for the Chinese. (Note that while the main Chinese characters (the heroes) are all Caucasians, the Japanese (evil -doers) Hollywood managed to find enough Asians to cast).The movied earned itself several stars for it's feminist portrayal of a "modern" Chinese woman who wanted to read and be the equal to her husband. Something that was probably pretty radical in '37. This is why I still feel the film is worth watching (IMO). But only if you are fore-warned about how truly painful the miscasting is!
diana-2
Just one correction. The Japanese did not surrender unconditionally. We accepted a conditional surrender because Russia declared war on Japan in August 1945 and would have taken it over if we had not accepted their surrender and occupied Japan.A little-known fact, I'm afraid. If it had been an unconditional surrender, Emperor Hirohito would have been tried as a war criminal.Most people think that Japan surrendered unconditionally, due to atomic bombs, but they did not.As far as the movie is concerned, I've never found this movie to be very interesting. It makes too much of the Chinese resistance without showing much of what they did. The movie is too "talky". Katharine Hepburn is totally miscast and looks foolish.
PsyDtoBe
OK, just to start, let me say this: Katharine Hepburn as a submissive Chinese wife!That alone justifies a rating of 1. This movie was made under the aegis of patriotism, showing our allies, the Chinese, as humble, brave and long-suffering and our enemies, the Japanese, as brutal and cruel. Of course, all the Japanese were played by Chinese and all the Chinese were played by white people. The somehow stereotypically Jewish Chinese merchant who put greed before his family and country manages to be racist to Chinese people AND anti-Semitic all at the same time!I watched this movie for a class on 1940's American film in college. It's a truly good thing that this is not the height of what the decade had to offer. I don't recommend this movie for anything other than a historic/sociological look at the mindset of the decade. For that it's useful, for everything else, it's garbage.
