This is a very weird movie. It’s an example of how far behind the other countries were in filmmaking than America. This is 1937 and looks like a movie from the 1920’s both in film stock quality and its technique of editing and shooting. It's quite simple and stage like in the vein of basic silent films from America and Europe in the 1920s. China is clearly behind the times in its technical capabilities and stylistic capabilities. The film is also strange for the clear influence of Phantom of the Opera and the random Frankenstein style ending of the villagers chasing the phantom to a windmill and setting it on fire. That scene is almost taken wholesale from the American film. Clearly the Chinese filmmakers were influenced by the American pop movies of their day, and meshed them together in their own story.
The strange thing about this movie is that the phantom ends up being the good guy in a Frankenstein type way. It’s literally like a modern day Chinese knock off movie of that american classic without the direct storyline and captivating visuals and makeup.
It's just very strange yet captivating too and embued with the political nuance of the warlord era in china.