Broken Blossoms or The Yellow Man and the Girl

Plot synopsis:
Cheng Huan (Richard Barthelmess) is a Buddhist missionary living and working in the Limehouse district of London. He had traveled from his native China with the intent of spreading a message of love and hope to the British but instead became an opium addict. He admires from a distance young Lucy (Lillian Gish), a downtrodden teenager who shops in the district. Lucy's lives with her father, the prizefighter Battling Burrows (Donald Crisp). He is a cruel, brutal man who beats Lucy with a whip whenever she does anything wrong. She does her best to maintain a positive outlook but it is difficult.Just before he goes to his training quarters, Battling beats Lucy severely because she accidentally spills food on him. After he leaves, Lucy stumbles to the Limehouse and collapses in Cheng Huan's shop. He takes her upstairs to his bedroom and nurses her back to health. He dresses her in Chinese silk gowns, gives her dolls and flowers, and for the first time in her life, Lucy feels safe. Cheng Huan's love for her is more than platonic but her beauty is so pure he refuses to sully her with sexuality.One of Battling's assistants (George Baranger) buys some merchandise in Cheng Huan's shop. Cheng Huan leaves him alone in the store momentarily. The assistant hears a noise from upstairs and goes to investigate. He discovers Lucy. The assistant rushes to Battling's training ring and informs him of what he saw. Battling is outraged that Lucy is associating with a member of another race. That night, after winning his boxing match, Battling goes with two other men to Cheng Huan's shop. Cheng Huan is out buying flowers for Lucy. Battling destroys the bedroom and drags Lucy back to their dismal apartment. Although she tries to hide from him in a closet, she is unable to stop Battling from thrashing her mercilessly with the whip. She dies from her injuries.Meanwhile, Cheng Huan has returned and discovered that Lucy is gone. He takes a gun and goes to Battling's apartment. He finds Lucy's dead body and in revenge guns down Battling. He then carries Lucy back to the bedroom above his shop. While Battling's friends alert the police to the boxer's death, Cheng Huan performs a Buddhist ritual for Lucy to reach the afterlife. He then commits suicide himself.

Tags: violence, murder, melodrama

Review:
From a good silent film Broken Blossoms is beautifully transformed into a work of Art, the merger of the music and Billy Bitzer's visuals can be so striking.
I know that most people today would hoot at the acting abilities displayed: Lillian Gish's pathetic submissiveness, Donald Crisp's over the top savage expressions and Richard Barthelmess's determinedly serious inscrutability, but appreciation of silent melodramas as a genre is really required rather than simply selecting just one film to watch, such as this.
"In this scarlet house of sin, does he ever hear the temple bells?" Broken Blossoms is the movie I use to introduce people to silent film who only know it from Chaplin shorts or Birth of a Nation.
If you have a chance to see this version, by all means do so.In answer to a question in another posting, the movie WAS originally tinted--it was part of the "epic poetry" attempt and was quite common with a lot of Griffith work--even back to "A Corner in Wheat".While I am an immense Gish fan, a lot has already been said about Miss Lillian in the other comments, so I will concentrate on Dick Bartlemess as Chen Huan.
However, I think "Broken Blossoms" is the Griffith film which stands the test of time and still rings true today, over 83 years from its debut."Broken Blossoms" is the story of two wounded, abused, seemingly hopeless individuals who find comfort and strength in one another.
The Chinaman (played by Richard Barthelmess) and little Lucy Burrows (played by Lillian Gish) are as different as night is to day, however they complement each other and give each other what the other needs; Lucy gives the Chinaman respect as a human being, he in turn gives Lucy affection and love.What happens to the two souls is, in my opinion, one of the most heartbreaking turn of events ever filmed.
The brutal treatment of Lucy by her father and the ultimate sadness of the Chinaman at the end of the film always reduce me to tears.Those who believe that silent movies are inferior to today's craft really needs to see "Broken Blossoms" and open their hearts and minds to a world that is beyond beauty and beyond pain..
Unlike Griffith's epic masterpieces as THE BIRTH OF A NATION (1915) and INTOLERANCE (1916), each running over two hours in length, BROKEN BLOSSOMS, is in fact a simple story focusing on three central characters (Richard Barthelmess, Donald Crisp and Lillian Gish, in order of their appearance) that deals with touchy subject matters ranging from racial prejudice to child abuse, topics that are still sensitive issues even today.Based on Thomas Burke's "The Chink and the Child," the story begins in China where Cheng Haun, also known as The Yellow Man (Richard Barthelmess), a young idealist, coming to the London slums where he hopes to convert rude Westerners to the gospel of the gentle Buddha.
Battling Burrows (Donald Crisp), a small-time prizefighter by which the title cards describes him as "an abysmal brute, a gorilla from the jungles of East London," living with his illegitimate daughter, Lucy (Lillian Gish), a tragic figure who waits on him hand and foot.
When Battling Burrows is told of his daughter's whereabouts, he sets out to get "the dirty Chink" and to "learn them both."In spite of its old-fashioned screenplay with the use of a white actor (Barthelmess) in an Oriental role, BROKEN BLOSSOMS is still timely.
For this scene alone, Gish has proved her capability as one of the finest actresses in this history of film.With such a depressing theme, BROKEN BLOSSOMS reportedly was a surprise hit upon its release.
The sole reason for its success is how Lucy is portrayed on screen, ranging from her tragically sad face and shoulder-length hair adding to the believability to her character, knowing full well that Gish was a young woman in her early twenties enacting the role of a 12 to 15 year-old child.
This is the film that elevated Barthelmess to the rank as top leading man through much of the 1920s, one opposite Gish again under Griffith's direction in another classic tale, WAY DOWN EAST (1920).With a limited amount of actors listed in the cast, the supporting players consists of Arthur Howard as the fighting manager; Edward Piel as Evil Eye; Norman "Kid McCoy" Selby as a prizefighter; and George Nicholas as the Policeman.
And was that Roscoe Karns as the reporter in the final portion of the story?BROKEN BLOSSOMS was one of the twelve selected silent films that was broadcast on public television's 1975 presentation of THE SILENT YEARS, as hosted by Lillian Gish.
It would be hard to top Lillian Gish's performance as Lucy in any era, and Richard Barthelmess turns in a purposefully restrained and surprisingly effective performance in a role that was far from easy.The story ties together several weighty themes, and most of them are still pertinent.
Like the BROKEN BLOSSOMS of a trampled rose, the pure affection between two unutterably lonely people is destroyed by evil & hatred.Turning his back temporarily on the Silent epics of his past, movie master David Wark Griffith turned the laser beam of his talent on the tragic story of three pathetic individuals living in the slums of London's Limehouse: a fragile waif, her vicious father, and the gentle Chinese shopkeeper living nearby.
Just three people living increasingly desperate lives, brought together by a tidal wave of pure emotion.Lillian Gish was right thinking she was too old to play the young girl, and she did so only at Griffith's insistence, but it is impossible to contemplate anyone else in the role.
Miss Lillian had started rehearsals while weakened from the Spanish Flu; she created a movie portrait which caught her genius forever.Matching her in almost every particular is her costar Richard Barthelmess, who gives a most sensitive portrayal as the Chinese missionary who comes to England to proselytize for Buddha, but instead finds himself alone & friendless in the squalor of the great city.
"Broken Blossoms" is a mere story of forbidden love if such occurrences can actually be called "mere." And although the sets used to portray the foggy gloom and forbidding darkness of London's Limehouse district were indeed expensive, this was a film carried by its only three stars and one that relies totally on the telling of a story.Richard Barthelmess plays Cheng Huan, a Buddhist missionary who now takes residence in Limehouse.
Donald Crisp plays this part so well that the lack of sound does not inhibit the volume of cruelty he enforces on his only daughter, nor our ability to feel her level of sheer pain and suffering.Although all three of them may technically may be viewed as broken and products of their own respective worlds, when those worlds clash with each other and tragedy seems more likely, it is Gish who steals the show.
And while Griffith may have already given the cinema more than its fair share of technological nuances with his first two features, he still manages to find subtle bits of direction that affect one's viewing of this sordid triangle: Gish's physical inability to smile and her seeking of solitude in something as simple as a flower cannot be emphasized enough as the film goes along.Political historians may note that Griffith is up to his usual tricks of racism as it is portrayed in the Asian who is played by the white Barthelmess but this is unfounded.
It is rather interesting to compare the silent D.W. Griffith BROKEN BLOSSOMS with its inspiration: the 1916 Thomas Burke short story The Chink And The Child, published in Limehouse Nights (Grant Richards Limited, London).
In a time when women were either out on the street turning tricks, or in the home raising children, this film looks at Lucy Burrows (Miss Gish) who seems to be caught in the middle.
As in all of Griffith's films, the women are either virtuous or fallen, and the men are either lusting brutes, or effeminate sensitive males.Many may look aghast at the legendary Barthelmess playing the chinaman, Cheng Huan, or any one of a number of races played by white actors.
However Griffith had not lost his own talent, and in its favour I will say Broken Blossoms has one of the most convincingly bleak portrayals of a setting in any film of this time.
Likewise, his 'Broken Blossoms' has also been frowned upon as being racist  an unjust label, I believe, since the director has obviously aimed to be quite the opposite, portraying the Chinese Cheng Huan as the most noble and sympathetic male character in the film.Cheng Huan (played by American actor Richard Barthelmess) is a devoted Buddhist who travels to London to spread the word of peace in the Western World.
His one and only shining light in this grim, smog-ridden world of cruelty and hate is Lucy Burrows (Lillian Gish), a truly painfully poignant image of vulnerability, of a delicate flower in the breeze, of the "broken blossoms" of a trodden rose.
Though the subtitle of the film, 'The Yellow Man and the Girl,' today also sounds inherently offensive, it is best observed merely as a product of the era, and I also don't believe that Griffith meant anything evil by it.The acting in the film is quite effective, though it varies between subtlety and exaggeration among the actors.
Barthelmess and Gish meet, and fall in love Subtitled "The Yellow Man and the Girl", D.W. Griffith's "Broken Blossoms" is poetically directed and photographed (G.W. Bitzer).
********** Broken Blossoms (5/13/19) D.W. Griffith ~ Richard Barthelmess, Lillian Gish, Donald Crisp, Edward Peil.
This is one of Griffith's 'small' pictures, unlike the super-productions such as 'Intolerance' or 'Orphans of the Storm,' or even 'Way Down East.' Still, it's difficult to believe that the intricate and detailed and richly authentic waterfront location was a set constructed to Griffith's specifications for the film.Like most other students of film history, I have conflicted feelings about David Wark Griffith and his legacy of racism and intolerance, as is plainly demonstrated in his watershed picture 'The Birth of a Nation.' But still, I don't know that it's fair to ignore or deny or even question his ability to use the cinematic medium to create drama, establish dramatic nuance, and express emotion, particularly in an art form which at the time was necessarily speechless.'Broken Blossoms' as a film was actually suggested to Griffith by Douglas Fairbanks, who'd read the Thomas Burke source material, the short story collection 'Limehouse Nights.' And according to actress Lillian Gish, who like Richard Barthelmess gives probably her career-best performance in this picture, the film's release was delayed after production and principal photography was completed because Griffith was so emotionally devastated and drained by the filming experience that he couldn't face editing the picture.
Turrin located a copy of the original sheet music of that lovely song, and performs it on the piano in one of the 'Masterworks' extras.Those extras also include a filmed introduction by Lillian Gish and the entire text of the original Thomas Burke short story.
And as an extra and unintentional bonus, watch closely about twenty minutes into the picture, right after the inter-title which reads, "The girl with the tear-worn face": The shot shows Gish looking into a store window, and reflected in the window glass the viewer can see the ghostly image of photographer Billy Bitzer standing behind his tripod camera and then Griffith himself in a vest and shirtsleeves walking briskly onto the set and seating himself in a canvas chair beside Bitzer.
Cheng nurses her back to health, but a friend of the abusive father finds her and tells the father, who comes looking for her with tragic results.This is not a grandiose movie the Griffiths epochs but is a story told close up with a small cast and use of a lot of close up shots, It all works well together making a stunning and emotional tale.
It is beautifully filmed (including the quite realistic boxing footage) and has really amazing performances by Donald Crisp as the violent alcoholic misogynist boxer Battling Burrows and Lillian Gish as her suffering daughter Lucy (white Richard Barthelmess, though, does not convince so much as the "yellow man" from China).
Set in what one could assume is Victorian-era London boiling over with strife and hard times, Broken Blossoms centres around hapless and sullen victim Lucy, daughter of professional boxer Burrows who often gets overly mad (for reasons never truly justified) before proceeding to take it out on his timid daughter in between beating people up for money and then spending said money on alcohol and women.
From the harsh, foggy London streets to the endlessly amusing fight scenes involving Burrows, Broken Blossoms is very much Intolerance without the historical sidestories or light-heartedness of its central love story, mixed with the character dynamics of Birth of a Nation.
It can be a little broad at times, and often tries too hard to be frail and grim, but there's still plenty to love whether it's in Gish's wonderful performance or simply just in appreciating the stark change of pace from Griffith that favours tone and character over grand historical stories, huge elaborate sets and line-in-the-sand political statements..
To make a truly poetic film (however I, of course, cannot 100% speak for the man he's been dead for years).With some really mature themes attached to it (some sequences containing abuse towards Lilian Gish's character are still hard to watch today), "Broken Blossoms" is ahead of its time in almost every way.
If you consider Griffith's time, and the desire for social reform which was sweeping the nation at that period, the possibly awkward sentiments (to our 21st century eyes)that are presented should really be considered as liberal, even revolutionary.Lillian Gish does a beautiful job of portraying the abused and forlorn girl, and Richard Barthalmass is delicate, sympathetic and very sad, a hero without being GRAND, very unusual for the time.The lighting and photography is exquisite, the story is lovely, and the acting superb.
Donald Crisp overacts wildly and comically as the father, and I feel such a broad performance is ill-fitting for such a delicate tale.Broken Blossoms is dated and perhaps not ideal as an introduction to the silent era, but it's still worth a look for more seasoned fans and especially those only used to Griffith's epics..
Indeed, all the European characters, with the exception of Lillian Gish, come across as savages compared to him.Broken Blossoms benefits from several good performances.
He soon after than opens a store and starts a new life until when he falls in love with a young girl, whose father is a brute.The movie obviously is a melodramatic one but like with all D.W. Griffith's movies is the case, it all works out extremely effective and powerful.
but too happy, because this movie exists.I heard about "Broken Blossoms" when i see for first time the beautiful and unforgettable picture of Lillian Gish in the port near of her house.
I cannot put into words in this small bit of space and time which I am alloted, exactly how tenderly and beautifully Richard Barthelmess as the Chink is portrayed in D.W. Griffith's "Broken Blossoms".....the movie even though silent, speaks its own eloquence.
W. Griffith dials it down with this intimate drama, Broken Blossoms, starring Lillian Gish and Richard Barthelmess.
BROKEN BLOSSOMS (1919) tells the story of Cheng Huan (Richard Barthelmess), a young Chinese man who journeys from his homeland to spread the peaceful message of Buddha to the English.
At the same time we meet Lucy (Lillian Gish), a poor teenage girl who has to contend with an abusive father, prizefighter Battling Burrows (Donald Crisp).
SCORE: 9/10 SUMMARY: BROKEN BLOSSOMS is a notable film in Griffith's body of work for its daring (for the time) subject matter.
An intimate portrait of Cheng Huan (Richard Barthelmess), a kind hearted Chinese man, and his love for a poor abused girl named Lucy Burrows (Lillian Gish), as well as the brutality of Battling Burrows, a sadistic prizefighter.The visual style of Broken Blossoms emphasizes the seedy Limehouse streets with their dark shadows, drug addicts and drunkards, contrasting them with the beauty of Cheng and Lucy's innocent attachment as expressed by Cheng's decorative apartment.
However, with this picture, Griffith captures a moment in time when foreigners were not welcome in countries far from home and the poor lived more and more poor every day.Richard Barthelmess gives a powerful performance as Cheng Huan, a Chinese who migrates to London to spread what he believes is the peaceful word of Buddha.
Cheng Huan (Richard Barthelmess, who became a star with this film and would go on to earn two Oscar nominations) comes to London to make his fortune, but soon finds himself in the drudgery of everyday life.Lucy (Oscar nominee Lillian Gish) is a 15-year-old girl who is used as a punching bag by her father, a boxer, Battling Burrows (Oscar winner Donald Crisp).East meets West and flowers bloom.Lucy smiles for the first time in her life, and is treated like a Princess.
But things don't last, as they are found out by Battling Burrows.Hatred in his heart, Burrows strikes out with disastrous consequence.D.W. Griffith manages to bring out the best in Gish and Crisp and in a beautifully tinted film gives us a tragic love story..
Broken Blossoms (1919) *** 1/2 (out of 4) An abused girl (Lillian Gish) falls in love with a Chinese man (Richard Barthelmess) but her abusive father (Donald Crisp) doesn't approve and will stop at nothing to make sure the two don't see one another.
Unfortunately, it was also done to us, punishing us for enjoying "Birth of a Nation," I suppose.Griffith must have still been feeling guilty by 1919, because in that year he also made "Broken Blossoms or The Yellow Man and the Girl," in which he tried to atone for his racist classic one more time.