Shizi jietou (1937)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

Xiling Shen

Release Date:

15 April 1937 (China)

Plot:

Four students in Shanghai have recently finished university. All are unemployed. Xu contemplates suicide but his friend Zhao talks him out of it...

Cast

Dan Zhao	...	Zhao
Yang Bai	...	Miss Yang
Ban Lu
Yin Ying
Meng Sha
Ming Yi

Also Known As:

Crossroads (International: English title)

Runtime:

USA:110 min

Country:

China

Language:

Mandarin

Color:

Black and White

Company:

Mingxing Film Company

Watch the sequel made more than half a century later

The literal translation of this title is actually: At the Crossroads, instead of Crossroads.

The movie gives a very precise description of the difficult lives of the common Chinese citizens in the late 1930's China, which could not escape the Great Depression world wide. Furthermore, the problem was compounded by the fact that China was at war already, before other major western powers such as UK and USA.

What is interesting is that the similar situation is repeating itself in China today, despite the fact that Chinese economy is booming and there China is not suffering from neither the war nor the economic depression, and this is depicted in the sequel made in 2001, more than half a century later, titled At New Crossroads (Xin Shizi Jietou), and audience should compare two.