Song of China

Kwah-Wu Shang is a successful businessman, but his children are more interested in the pleasures available to them in the city than in working hard. So, back they all go to the countryside town he grew up in. Even there, his children throw parties, supposedly to honor him, but really so they can eat well, show off, and gamble. Then he recalls his own father;s dicta about doing good, rooted in the writings of Confucius. He founds an orphanage and old-folks home.

The IMDb claims late Chinese silent picture with a musical track was the first Chinese film to get general release in the United States. I found it a fairly straightforward story about the traditional Chinese values. As a Jew, I find them familiar, because they are the same as those of the culture I grew up in: respect for learning, a sense of charity towards the community, the honoring of parents, and a deep love of food. Although this is more an overt parable than an actual story, I thought the camerawork was good and the acting fine; if the old-age make-up of the lead towards the end was a bit primitive and obvious, the 45-minute print I looked at, cut down from 65 minutes, moved along briskly.