A confident and defiant film, Storm Over Asia succeeds as both a rabble-rousing bit of propaganda and an entertaining adventure film.
The film depicts the simple Mongol herdsman and trappers calmly and pleasantly practicing their commerce, until one is cheated out of a valuable fox fur by a CAPITALIST PIG (that's us, kids). He gets into a brawl with the dude, and is ousted from the co-op for doing so. In exile, he escapes to the hills and becomes a Soviet supporter, and helps them fight against the occupying British army. He is captured by the British (during a meeting with a baby that is apparently the reincarnated Grand Lama) and sent out to be shot. But after being sent out, the army discovers an amulet that suggests he is a direct descendant of Genghis Khan, so they rush out, save him (He fled and got shot in the belly), and install him as a sort of promotional puppet leader. But once he gains more prominence, he decided to turn against his CAPITALIST PIG bosses.
The film is well-directed and well-put-together, with every scene having a rough polish befitting the Soviet defense. I considered mentioning that the CAPITALIST PIGS were a bit one-dimensional, but if honestly, they probably were quite a bit like this, especially from their perspective, and the most underpraised of the Soviet masters, Vsevelod Pudovkin, has a sure hand that keeps the film paced damn near to perfection, and I never lost interest for a moment, leading to a satisfying guns-blazing finale to which the film had been building throughout.
Storm Over Asia provides yet another lament for the advent of sound, as so many films from the late 1920s exhibited a myriad of great directors perfecting the artform, before sound tore it all down, forcing them to start all over again, ensuring a film like Storm Over Asia would never be able to be made, the way it was so wonderfully made, ever again.
{Grade: 8.5/10 (B+) / #4 (of 13) of 1928}
The film depicts the simple Mongol herdsman and trappers calmly and pleasantly practicing their commerce, until one is cheated out of a valuable fox fur by a CAPITALIST PIG (that's us, kids). He gets into a brawl with the dude, and is ousted from the co-op for doing so. In exile, he escapes to the hills and becomes a Soviet supporter, and helps them fight against the occupying British army. He is captured by the British (during a meeting with a baby that is apparently the reincarnated Grand Lama) and sent out to be shot. But after being sent out, the army discovers an amulet that suggests he is a direct descendant of Genghis Khan, so they rush out, save him (He fled and got shot in the belly), and install him as a sort of promotional puppet leader. But once he gains more prominence, he decided to turn against his CAPITALIST PIG bosses.
The film is well-directed and well-put-together, with every scene having a rough polish befitting the Soviet defense. I considered mentioning that the CAPITALIST PIGS were a bit one-dimensional, but if honestly, they probably were quite a bit like this, especially from their perspective, and the most underpraised of the Soviet masters, Vsevelod Pudovkin, has a sure hand that keeps the film paced damn near to perfection, and I never lost interest for a moment, leading to a satisfying guns-blazing finale to which the film had been building throughout.
Storm Over Asia provides yet another lament for the advent of sound, as so many films from the late 1920s exhibited a myriad of great directors perfecting the artform, before sound tore it all down, forcing them to start all over again, ensuring a film like Storm Over Asia would never be able to be made, the way it was so wonderfully made, ever again.
{Grade: 8.5/10 (B+) / #4 (of 13) of 1928}