This is the first Chinese film on the list. And it is fantastic. The film is about a prostitute mom who is blackmailed by a gangster pimp, in a storyline that is very brutally realistic and sordid and completely reminiscent of the 1920’s bold brutal storylines about people doing human acts of violence and manipulation towards each other. This film is silent so in that respect you can see how it exists in the same cultural mindset of the 1920's and generally speaking there is a cultural delay between America and the West and the rest of the world so it would make sense that Chinese Filmmakers are still making movies in the style of the late 1920's American films.
This movie also shows that the rest of the world did not shun these 1920’s highly revealing and bold storylines as America did going into the 1930s. Foreign films from the 30’s were challenging in ways that american films had been up until the enforcement of the Hays Code and a rapidly growing audience desire for escapist films throughout the Great Depression.
This movie is a serious tearjerker. The performance of Ruan Lingyu is classic and legendary and would make her an idol in Chinese cinematic history. The story is also very taut with a very clear arc and that's what makes the tragic ending of the mother having to die on behalf of her son so sad. This movie really makes you cry and feel the anguish of being trapped in a life of poverty and crime and how the two breed each other in a vicious cycle.
This film is also emblematic of what was blossoming Chinese Cinema before the War tore it all down and Mao's subsequent takeover prevented Chinese movies from coming back onto the international stage for decades.