The Shanghai Document (1928)

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

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)

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