Underplayed Gems

Daybreak (1933)

Daybreak poster
Original title
天明
Directed by
Sun Yu
Genre
drama film, silent film
Country
Republic of China
Runtime
1h 56m
Rating
6.6 of 10 from 8 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.

More films like this

How it feels

A young country girl moves from her fishing village to Shanghai with her cousin. She is betrayed by her sister and forced into prostitution before becoming a martyr for the revolution.

tragicmelancholichopefulgrittyromanticfast-pacedold-fashionedsentimental

What happens

Daybreak (Chinese: 天明; pinyin: tiānmíng) is a 1933 Chinese silent film, directed by Sun Yu. It was released by the Lianhua Film Company (United Photoplay Studio), premiered in Shanghai's Peking Theater on February 2, 1933. The film follows Lingling, a young country girl from a rural fishing village, as she moves to Shanghai with her cousin, Zhang. As Zhang drifts into revolutionary circles, Lingling falls into an unfortunate path. Sold to a corrupt boss who intoxicates and rapes her by her own sister, Lingling is forced into prostitution before eventually becoming a martyr for the oncoming revolution. Daybreak is supervised by Lo Ming Yau, with Lu Hanzhang as production director, Zhou Ke as cinematographer, and Fang Peilin as set designer. The film stars Li Lili, one of the biggest silent film stars of the period. It was a star vehicle for Li Lili in the early stages of her career, and the seventh film of director Sun Yu, who was the best-known auteur of Shanghai cinema during the 1920s. She had also portrayed a similar role involving seduction for espionage in Sun Yu's The Great Road (1934). The film was also created in commemoration and celebration of the Kuomintang Party's successful completion in the Northern Expedition. Director Sun Yu's films were intended for nationalist propaganda and Daybreak presents a narrative of redemption as a soft film - the concept where cinema is created as a form of entertainment and a means of aesthetic presentation above all else. The narrative openness encourages and allows for cinematic audiences to develop their own political interpretations and, in this film, for "left wing" or "pro-CCP" messages to emerge from its mise en abyme, apart from the apparent "pro-KMT" message. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

This page is from Underplayed Gems. Not quite it? You can browse by genre, country and year, or take this one into the 3D catalogue and ask the Catbot for something closer.