This movie is pure propaganda, but that doesn't make it bad propaganda, or a bad movie.
It has its genesis in the "Lincheng Outrage" of 1923. Bandits composed of ex-soldiers and....pure bandits hijacked the crack "Blue Express", the Shanghai to Peking (actually, Tientsin, to the East) killed (a little) looted (a lot) and held Westerners on the train for ransom. And there was a treasure trove of important hostages to take! In the end, it did not go well for the hostage-takers.
That story gets transformed into a Chinese class struggle against the typical forces of Western capitalist oppression.
The heroes and heroines are the Chinese people on the train, who rise up against the capitalists. There are images of that speeding train that presage "Shanghai Express" by less than 3 years. So, what do you need to know?
The Chinese, informed and enlightened against the foreign oppressors defeat them in an intense gun battle on the train. Wicked capitalists decide the only way to thwart the rising of social consciousness is to divert the train on to a side track that will lead to a catastrophic crash.
The capitalist lackey on the track and the honest socialist switch-man engage in mortal combat. Badly wounded, our switch-man gets the train on the right track moments before catastrophe. The train and the narrative increase in velocity to the end. Some of the film cuts of the train's progress were perhaps lifted in Von Sternberg in "Shanghai Express". The Russians (like the director of this film and Serge Eisenstein) felt that Von Sternberg lifted much of the story, some of characters, and a lot of the editing from this movie. Pretty good story, pretty good editing, pretty good acting. Pretty good Soviet filmmaking from its golden, silent, age. Not "The Battleship Potemkin", but worth it if you want to see connections between good Soviet propaganda and Von Sternberg's early works.
It has its genesis in the "Lincheng Outrage" of 1923. Bandits composed of ex-soldiers and....pure bandits hijacked the crack "Blue Express", the Shanghai to Peking (actually, Tientsin, to the East) killed (a little) looted (a lot) and held Westerners on the train for ransom. And there was a treasure trove of important hostages to take! In the end, it did not go well for the hostage-takers.
That story gets transformed into a Chinese class struggle against the typical forces of Western capitalist oppression.
The heroes and heroines are the Chinese people on the train, who rise up against the capitalists. There are images of that speeding train that presage "Shanghai Express" by less than 3 years. So, what do you need to know?
The Chinese, informed and enlightened against the foreign oppressors defeat them in an intense gun battle on the train. Wicked capitalists decide the only way to thwart the rising of social consciousness is to divert the train on to a side track that will lead to a catastrophic crash.
The capitalist lackey on the track and the honest socialist switch-man engage in mortal combat. Badly wounded, our switch-man gets the train on the right track moments before catastrophe. The train and the narrative increase in velocity to the end. Some of the film cuts of the train's progress were perhaps lifted in Von Sternberg in "Shanghai Express". The Russians (like the director of this film and Serge Eisenstein) felt that Von Sternberg lifted much of the story, some of characters, and a lot of the editing from this movie. Pretty good story, pretty good editing, pretty good acting. Pretty good Soviet filmmaking from its golden, silent, age. Not "The Battleship Potemkin", but worth it if you want to see connections between good Soviet propaganda and Von Sternberg's early works.
