Underplayed Gems

Crossroads (1937)

Crossroads poster
Original title
十字街頭
Directed by
Shen Xiling
Genre
drama film
Country
Republic of China
Runtime
1h 50m
Rating
6.2 of 10 from 6 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

A group of young people in 1930s Shanghai cope with unemployment and love during the Great Depression. The film mixes comedy with hints of the looming war with Japan.

lightheartedwrysocially awarebittersweetgroundedurbanseriocomicperiod piece

What happens

Crossroads is a 1937 Chinese seriocomedy film directed by Shen Xiling, starring Bai Yang and Zhao Dan. The film exemplified the growing trend of Chinese films by the mid-1930s of incorporating references (both veiled and explicit) to the war with Japan. In this way, Crossroads joins films like Blood on Wolf Mountain by Fei Mu and The Big Road by Sun Yu. Crossroads has its background in the Great Depression of the 1930s. Produced by Mingxing Film Company, the film also represented an expansion by Mingxing into the leftist film market that had been dominated by its rival Lianhua Film Company, due to a flagging financial situation. In 2001, a sequel was made, despite the half-century gap, entitled New Crossroads. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

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