im_trusfrated

8/10

Spoilers

This film was made during a time when interracial marriages were outlawed, and love between different races in films were rare, if not unthinkable. While Cheng Huan is unfortunately portrayed by a white man, it is nonetheless a beautifully told story that touches upon issues like drug abuse, child abuse, and racism. Rather than calling it a love story between the girl and the young Chinese man, it felt more like a story of two people who are "weaker than the rest" finding comfort in each other. [spoiler] The man did not "love" the girl, but worshipped her religiously: showering her with gifts and "offerings"; trying to catch the moonlight for her; kneeling and praying by her side, etc. The Buddhist man is finally able to carry out his mission--to spread "message of peace". He regained his youthful idealism and sense of purpose through the girl, which was long lost and broken. To the girl, the man showed her "the first gentleness she has ever known". He provides her shelter, safety, comfort, love, and all the things she had ever hoped for. They fell in love with the things they each other represents. They were broken blossoms and victims of the wrongs of the society, found hope in each other, only for it to be shattered again. [/spoiler] > "We may believe there are no Battling Burrows, striking the helpless with brutal whip--but do we not ourselves use the whip of unkind words and deed?"

CinemaSerf

0/10

Richard Barthelmess and an almost porcelain-looking Lilian Gish are both great in this intimate, beautifully photographed, tale of a true love. Gish is a young girl from London's East end who is persistently brutalised by her violent pugilist father. Barthelmess is a man newly arrived from China bent on encouraging the British to seek the peaceful ways of the Buddha. From his small emporium, he espies this young girl and after one particularly horrific attack by her father, takes her in and nourishes her back to health. Sadly, bigotry and intolerance are still pretty rife and when her father discovers where she has taken refuge, tragedy ensues... It's a simple story, very well executed by D.W. Griffith with a delightful style to it. An early outing for Donald Crisp as her bruiser father is a little hammy at times, he flexes his muscles and his grimace a little too theatrically - but the story is tightly told with empathy for the girl, sympathy for the boy and a gently bubbling hatred for the father for whom just desserts can only be a matter of time.