Stream it now Broken Blossoms or The Yellow Man and the Girl Reset Status Want to Watch Already Watched Don't Want to Watch

Comments pending.

I was really hoping to enjoy this film more than I did. It was very well done, especially the different colors signifying the different areas and characters, but I thought there was about twenty minutes when The Yellow Man was nursing the poor waif back to health that just dragged.

It had devine music to accompany the film, and very solid performances from the three main stars. The pugilist father was done with just the right amount of fervor by Donald Crisp. This is a role that could have been laughable had the actor gone too far, but Crisp handled the role with good control and thus made it genuinely effective.

It has a very heartbreaking ending, and it takes you back to the beginning of the story when The Yellow Man tries to break up the fight between the American sailors. This omen is the key to Griffith's bleak message. D.W. is showing the catastrophic effect that western society has brought to the world, and that not trying to help at all will bring about better results.

It is truly a tragic tale, and for any fan of silent film it is a must see. Maybe I was just too tired when I put it in, since it was the second film I had watched that night. I just became a bit bored with Griffiths repetitive shots of The Yellow Man gazing at his love while he takes care of her. Either way, it's a very good story with a very doleful conclusion, and is a very good film.

***/****

Pro: The tinting. The tragic ending. The close-ups. The set design.

Con: The boxer, Battling. The simple plot. Outdated.

Spoilers to come-------







Saw DW Griffith's Broken Blossoms yesterday in film class. What a hoot it was. This film has possibly the worst writing of any film I've ever seen. The titles redundantly "tell" (explain) the movie, using hallmark card flowery language, that I bet was lame-o even back in 1919. The characters are all stereotypes of the most obvious order, "the Yellow Man" being the most criminal characterization. The meek, peaceful "chink" tries to steal some lovin' one, two, three fucking times. This says a lot more about Griffith than anything else. The guy was a narrow-minded piece of bigot trash.
There's one scene that had me laughing too hard. Lillian Gish, starring as the girl, is sleeping in the Yellow Man's bed on the 2nd floor of his shop. She knocks over a pot and it breaks on the floor. No big whoopie, right? Wrong. A customer downstairs, who also happens to be an acquaintance of the girl's father, hears the noise and decides to investigate, for what reason other than to advance the plot. He goes up the stairs and of course sees the girl sleeping in the Yellow Man's bed. Uh oh! Daddy's going to find out and "learn 'em" both. ::Vomits::.
Also every performance is extremely, ridiculously over the top, even when comparing them to performances in other silent films including Griffith's Intolerance.
I acknowledge that Griffith was revolutionary in form (usually for doing things first, on a regular basis, with skill and care) but when it came to content, in Broken Blossoms specifically, he was a dunderhead.

D.W. Griffith may be forever known for the historical significance of his 1915 film The Birth of a Nation, but four years later came Broken Blossoms, Griffith's personal attempt at correcting the blatant racist tendencies of the former film and creating a poetic ode to love found amongst the lowest of the low. From the beginning, the intertitles of Griffith are beautifully written, even if they may seem a little phony today.

Broken Blossoms begins with a Chinese man making a huge journey from his homeland to the frightening city life in America. He immediately begins at the bottom of the food chain, trying to set up a small business in a city that comes across as poor and rundown. Simultaneously, we get the back story of Lucy, a gentle wandering girl who is constantly beaten by her father. Right away we know the paths of these societal rejects will cross. And when they finally do, it is love at first sight. Lucy is amazed to see compassion for the first time, and Cheng is dazzled by her beauty.

And as the plot continues, it is rather simple, but even more simple is the basic love story that's still somehow captivating and perfectly sweet 88 (wow!) years later. And here, the so-called "Chink" prevails while the vicious white man falls, which seems to be a not-so-subtle hint from Griffith that past mistakes are long gone. Maybe Griffith was trying a little too hard and many of the scenes are outdated, but Broken Blossoms is certainly one of the oldest and finer film dedications to love found in the least likely of places.

B+

I watched Broken Blossoms after I was interested to view it by Rouge's thread about how women have been treated in film through the decades. Broken Blossoms has Lillian Gish as the heroin. The father is clearly the bad guy because he always beats her and always her to be poor while he is able to be healthy. This was also very big on religion. Buddhism vs Christianity. It is almost the fact that they never put a stand on which when is better, which is very interesting for when it was made. But to go back to if the theme is still dependent on a man, I still think that yes Gish's character has no control in society and knows it and that is why she still lives with her father.

Apparently, D.W. Griffith wanted to atone for the horrible racism of Birth of a Nation. (We will not be reviewing that here. I saw it once in college; I have no intention of seeing it again, though I assure you that I'm glad I saw it the once.) It's an interesting thought, actually. Did he genuinely regret it? Was he ashamed of what he had done, or did he think he'd be more respected as a director if he was? I cannot say; I don't think anyone can. Either way, he decided to make a story that was thoughtful and sensitive about a race not his own; the problem to this was twofold. One, he never did bother to learn anything about the Chinese. Two . . . under the censorship of the time, he could not give his characters a happy ending. Period.

The lovely Lillian Gish (and she was lovely then) is the pathetic Lucy Burrows, a poor London waif, the child of a cruel boxer. She lives in a poor district, the apparent Chinatown, though I was unaware that London of that era had one. Still, one of its residents is Cheng Huan, ludicrously played by the very, very white Richard Barthelmess. He has come from China to convert the heathen English to Buddhism. This is ridiculous from every angle. However, we go along with it. He encounters Lucy and, presumably, falls in love with her. When she collapses--from starvation and being beaten by her father, I should imagine--in her doorway, he takes her in and cares for her. Of course, we cannot have a Chinese man and an Englishwoman together, and so they must die. Blessedly, her father does, too, but this is not terribly satifying in the end.

This story is ridiculous. The worst of it is not even that Cheng Huan ("the Chink," as he is affectionately known to his white neighbours) is played by a white man in bad makeup. He quotes Buddha, only Confucius said the thing he quotes. He commits seppuku, a Japanese tradition. It is foolish; this would have taken very, very little research, but D.W. Griffith did not seem at all worried by it. One Asian, we assume, is much like another. Half the villains, I will say, are white, and "Battling Burrows" (Donald Crisp) is the worst of them. He beats his daughter regularly, and he ends by killing her with an ax. However, Cheng Huan shoots him about fifteen times with his revolver, which is, of course, not mathematically possible.

Once again, however, as in Birth, we have Griffith's eye. It is a very well-made film, even if it is ridiculous. There are two nearly identical scenes in the film of ships moving in a harbour. It is clear that this is a matte painting. I don't even think the foreground is real; I think it's shadow puppets or some such. But it is lovely. It's one of the most beautiful images I think I've ever seen on film, and I've seen a lot of film. It is a painting capturing movement. For this alone, I could recommend this movie.

But we also have Lillian Gish. She worked with D.W. Griffith a time or two, of course. He had a knack for capturing her delicate beauty; indeed, this film makes a point of describing her delicate beauty over and over again. And while the film is decidedly racist for all Griffith's noble intentions, I cannot call it sexist. He quite accurately shows Lucy's predicament. The wives in her town counsel her against marriage; the prostitutes (not called so in as many words, but everyone knows what they are) counsel her against "their profession." She is trapped. All she can do is die, and she does it with such grace. And without her, Cheng Huan does not want to live. (Also, the death he makes for himself is almost certainly better than any death the mob would give him.)

Gods know I've seen better films. However, when I finished watching Birth, I could see its impact on film over the decades since it was made. Broken Blossoms has a subtler effect, but having seen it as well, I know that modern cinema would not be what it is without Griffith. Also, at least he was trying, if not very hard.

Since my last update, I have seen in my (fairly horrible) Film Studies class - I still can't get behind my professor and his wanna-be funny remarks - Singin' in the Rain, which I've seen before and hence did not take notes on, but suffice it to say that it is one of my favourite movies of all time; Broken Blossoms, my introduction to D.W. Griffith, and a splendid one at that; Shaun of the Dead, a fun recent romp that I've also seen a few times before and didn't take notes on; and finally Touch of Evil, a famously marred corrupt detective story from Orson Welles. My random study notes for Broken Blossoms and Touch of Evil, both of which I loved, follow...

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Broken Blossoms:
interesting subtitle...
blatant moral message (political) at start
Chinese man delivers message of peace to American soldiers, but it falls on deaf ears and even backfires
gorgeous cinematography of ship sailing
almost purple-ish hue in some more atmospheric scenes
very psedo-poetic/racist title cards
Battling as square-jawed villain --> very wacky face
very wealthy, looking for "girls of the street"
repeated shot of man sawing wood on docks
aww... she has to visibly force a smile for Battling... heartbreaking
Gish: very deliberate, mousy performance ("the shopping trip")
lighting becoming brighter when Lucy looks up at Yellow Man
Gish has wonderfully horrified, nervous expressions
shift btw. blueish hue of exterior shots vs. golden/sepia hue of interior
iris shot of dried flowers: importance to Lucy, and the story
both racist and shunning racism --> quite peculiar
Gish: miraculously self-possessed (playing with doll) --> immersed in character and her neat little habits
Yellow Man's creeping, intense figure seen close up --> very strange effect --> he seems almost like a stalker
Battling's anger in boxing ring heightened after learning of his daughter & Yellow Man
vivid matching close-ups of Battling and Lucy's intense faces
different settings/atmospheres lent different "hues"
her eyes are amazingly expressive --> her whole face, really
final shots of bell being rung far off, ships sailing away to signify death, "passing over"
In spite of the racism of the title cards and portrayal of Cheng ("The Yellow Man"), the film is a wonderfully touching and naturalistic love story that in many ways even comments against racism, especially in terms of its story. It is both advanced and stuck in the past (both in terms of ideology and style - specifically the acting of the man playing Battling), and that tension makes the film intriguing. Specifically, Gish's performance is one of the finest I've ever seen, which is why I kept coming back to it. Emotional and intense, it really makes the movie, which might itself sneak into my all-time favourites list. A

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Touch of Evil:
virtuoso opening tracking shot/crane shot is cool
great, sexy music percolating through the streets
ooh! cool explosion!
white woman hurtling angry, racist invective
upbeat music somehow becomes ominous, frightening
group of shady men looking straight into the camera, but at different angles
Orson Welles is fatter, always eating, inhabiting shadows, just gnawing on scenery
humourous, down & dirty dialogue
suspenseful, low-rumbling, snappy, dangerous music
masculinity of husband questioned: can he adequately protect his wife against dangerous figures
Grandy under arrest? why? which group is the shady one in this?
stolen dynamite! sensational!
Welles seems to dominate every room as he enters it
camera looking down a lot -- seeming to sniff the ground
various grotesques, stereotypes: blind shopkeeper, fat detective constantly asking for doughnuts
deception! seedy surroundings!
gasp! planting evidence!
showdown btw. Welles & mustached, thin man to come?
lighting showcasing woman's creamy curves in motel
leather jacket-sporting, grease-haired Mexican gangsters... quite blatantly stereotypical
Welles pretty much fills up whole frame as he drinks & chomps on cigar
Welles's anger & weary blusteriness in face of other officers questioning him mirrors his response to producers over final cut of film
loud music & close-ups of faces & quick editing turn motel into drug-fueled, terrifying purgatory
"rebel" women join in taunting & staring at woman
pulsating light, oblique angle as Welles discovered to be implicated in situation with blonde wife
---> depths of corruption become staggering
"I told you I brought you up here for a reason." -- repeated phrase before Welles mauls Mexican man & music reaches feverish pitch
mustache guy's outburst is also quite intense
display of masculinity to show he can defend his wife ---> "I'm no cop now, I'm a husband. What did you do to her? My wife! My wife!"
bison head juxtaposed with Welles's pudgy face
"Read my future for me." -- "You haven't got any." --> comment on Welles's film career?
really wacky angles towards climax show crookedness of players
Basically an exteremely entertaining, stylistically thrilling B-movie that's been turned into A material through Welles's acting and filmmaking techniques, as well as the crackling dialogue. It also shows Welles's vision struggling to overcome the constraints of his producers, and the tension adds another layer of interest to an already very exciting film. After Citizen Kane, F for Fake, and now this one, I think it's safe to say I am officially in awe of Orson Welles. A

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Well folks, I hope you enjoyed getting to know the crazy way I think via these notes (posted essentially word-for-word as they came out of my head and onto paper)! And if not, I'll hopefully have some more exciting new entries coming out this summer, since I am now pretty much done my second year at university.

A brilliant Statement against Parental Brutality and the Brutality in the Western Society at all another Point is that the Western Society thinks it is morally superior against the Eastern Society like in the Scene whene the Preacher says that his Brother is going to China to convert the heathen