Lady from Chungking (1942)

Best movie of this year hands down!

The first must-see film of the year.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

A Japanese general comes to stay in a Chinese village to await his main force. Also becoming involved in the story are two American airmen, a German night club owner, a partly Russian singer and a Chinese woman who leads the local partisan group. It is low budget but quite effective in its way at portraying the oppression of an occupied people. The firing squad scene is quite chilling and the ending is sad and uplifting at the same time. William Nigh directed over a hundred films and is probably thought of as a hack director but there are some little gems in his long career and this is one of them.The shining centre of the film is Anna May Wong as Kwan Mei. She is believable as the elegant woman charming the general, a worker in the paddy fields and the leader of the village rebels. She can be sweet and she can be ruthless. Of the supporting cast Mae Clarke is very good as the cynical singer Lavara but not in it enough unfortunately. Harold Huber as the Japanese general doesn't look the part but is solid enough.It's a wartime piece of propaganda but the message doesn't impede the drama.

Anna May Wong plays the leader of a Chinese resistance group under the control of Japanese invaders during World War 2. Basically, she is the only good thing about the film. Wong fools the Japanese General Harold Huber that she loves him so that she can obtain information about incoming Japanese troops which she can then pass on to the Resistance fighters. She gets the required info and carries out her own mission. It's an OK film that is carried by Anna May Wong. It has a cheesy preachy ending and the cast are all wrong except the actual Chinese people and Wong. It scores marks for its different setting and for Wong. That's it – nothing more to say.

This turns out to be a very watchable programmer from PRC. Anna May Wong commands the screen throughout and Mae Clarke isn't bad either. The whole story is told in little more than an hour, as per most poverty row productions, and considering the budget, it looks rather convincing. These little studios gave some one-time big stars such as those in this film a chance to show that they still had it. The production is directed by poverty row ace William Nigh, who does a fairly good job here. This was obviously but one of dozens of WW2 propaganda films, but this still has the power to entertain. Available on DVD or streaming on YouTube.

A group of Chinese farmers are being worked by the occupying Japanese army during World War II, while secretly working their underground movement to end the oppression. Kwan Mei, whose family was killed by the invaders, is questioned by the Japanese concerning the whereabouts of an American flier that was shot down. General Kaimura is taken by Kwan Mei's beauty and becomes his mistress, but she uses this to her advantage in order to obtain information vital to the Allied war effort. When she learns of a Japanese troop train that is to arrive, it is up to her to lead her fellow Chinese and allies to intercept it, overcoming the obstacles of the Japanese army and her fellow farmers who believe she betrayed them to the enemy. Very good propaganda film from PRC, which should have been done at another studio so its message of sacrifice and camaraderie would have been heard by more. Wong is simply terrific in her role as the clever Kwan Mei and her message at the end of the film captures the essence of every person oppressed by an evil captor. The scenes with Clarke, Donath, and the American fliers really take away from the main essence of the film and just seem to pad the running time. Worth a look. Rating, 7.