Daybreak (1933 film)
Encyclopedia
Daybreak is a 1933
1933 in film
-Events:* March 2 - King Kong premieres in New York City.* June 6 - The first drive-in theater opens, in Camden, New Jersey.* British Film Institute founded....

 Chinese
Cinema of China
The Chinese-language cinema has three distinct historical threads: Cinema of Hong Kong, Cinema of China, and Cinema of Taiwan. Since 1949 the cinema of mainland China has operated under restrictions imposed by the Communist Party of China's State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television and...

 silent film
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...

 directed by Sun Yu (director)
Sun Yu (director)
Sun Yu was a major leftist film director active in the 1930s in Shanghai. One of the core directors of the Lianhua Film Company, Sun Yu made a name for himself with a series of socially conscious dramas in the early to mid 1930s...

 for the Lianhua Film Company
Lianhua Film Company
The Lianhua Film Company was one of two major production companies based in Shanghai, China during the 1930s, the other being the Mingxing Film Company.-Names:...

. It follows a young girl from a rural fishing village, Ling Ling (played by Li Lili) as she moves to the glittering city of Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...

. There she is first rape
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...

d and then forced into prostitution
Prostitution
Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...

 before eventually becoming a martyr for the coming revolution.

The film stars Li Lili (Lily Li), one of the biggest silent film stars of the period.

Cast

  • Li Lili - Ling Ling, the film's heroine, a young fishing village girl who experiences the darker side of Shanghai
    Shanghai
    Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...

    .
  • Gao Zhanfei - Ling Ling's revolutionary lover
  • Ye Juanjuan
  • Yuan Congmei

Plot

Ling Ling's rural fishing village has recently been devastated by war. Moving to Shanghai in hope for a better life, she is shown the city's bright lights on the Bund
The Bund
The Bund is a waterfront area in central Shanghai, People's Republic of China. The area centres on a section of Zhongshan Road within the former Shanghai International Settlement, which runs along the western bank of the Huangpu River, facing Pudong, in the eastern part of Huangpu District...

. Eventually she finds a job working at a factory. Things turn dark, however, when Ling Ling is raped by her employer's son. She is then sold into prostitution.

Ironically, her role as prostitute allows her to move into higher social circles serving as a high-classed call girl. In this role, Ling Ling begins to come into some money, which she hopes to use to help others including her former factory friends and those less fortunate.

Soon she is offered the opportunity to help her former lover (Gao Zhanfei), a revolutionary, escape from the police. She does so, but is herself caught and sentenced to death. In the film's conclusion, Ling Ling tells her firing squad to fire only when she smiles her best smile.

DVD release

Long unavailable in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 except in poor video quality, Daybreak was eventually released on region free
DVD region code
DVD region codes are a digital-rights management technique designed to allow film distributors to control aspects of a release, including content, release date, and price, according to the region...

 DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

 by Cinema Epoch
Cinema Epoch
Cinema Epoch is an independent film distribution & production company based in the U.S. It was founded by distribution veteran and filmmaker Gregory Hatanaka. The company specializes in foreign, independent and cult cinema. The company's first release was the martial arts classic Master of the...

 in the United States on May 8, 2007. The disc features English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 subtitles
Subtitle (captioning)
Subtitles are textual versions of the dialog in films and television programs, usually displayed at the bottom of the screen. They can either be a form of written translation of a dialog in a foreign language, or a written rendering of the dialog in the same language, with or without added...

 and also includes Shen Xiling
Shen Xiling
Shen Xiling was a Chinese film director.- Partial filmography :- External links :...

's film, Crossroads
Crossroads (1937 film)
Crossroads is a 1937 Chinese seriocomedy film directed by Shen Xiling and starring Bai Yang and Zhao Dan. The film exemplified the growing trend of Chinese films by the mid-1930s of incorporating references to the war with Japan...

.

External links

  • Daybreak from the Chinese Movie Database
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