Underplayed Gems

The Shanghai Document (1928)

The Shanghai Document poster
Original title
Шанхайский документ
Directed by
Yakov Bliokh
Genre
documentary film, silent film
Country
Soviet Union, Germany
Runtime
51 min
Rating
6.0 of 10 from 5 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

This is a silent documentary from 1928 about Shanghai in the early 1920s. It contrasts the luxurious lives of Western expatriates in the International Settlement with the hard labor of the local Shanghainese people. The film is inspired by the Chinese nationalist revolution and its aftermath.

rawdocumentaryobservationalsocially conscioushistoricalcontrastsilent

What happens

The Shanghai Document (Russian: Шанхайский документ) is an early documentary film. This silent film was directed by Yakov Bliokh and was released in the USSR in 1928. The film portrays Shanghai, China in the early 1920s. It shows the contrasts between the world of Western expatriates (including Britons, Americans, New Zealanders, Australians, and Danes) who live in the luxurious Shanghai International Settlement, and that of the Shanghainese inhabitants, who spend their days laboring. The events which inspired the film revolve around the Chinese nationalist revolution (1925–27), including the May Thirtieth Movement, and the First United Front of the Chinese Communist Party, and the Nationalists (the Kuomintang), and its collapse in February 1927 when Chiang Kai-shek ordered a purge of the Communists in Shanghai and in other cities held by the revolutionaries. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

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