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IMDbPro

Katkenneita kukkasia

Original title: Broken Blossoms or The Yellow Man and the Girl
  • 19191919
  • Not RatedNot Rated
  • 1h 30m
IMDb RATING
7.3/10
10K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
15,780
5,167
Katkenneita kukkasia (1919)
DramaRomance
A frail waif, abused by her brutal boxer father in London's seedy Limehouse District, is befriended by a sensitive Chinese immigrant with tragic consequences.A frail waif, abused by her brutal boxer father in London's seedy Limehouse District, is befriended by a sensitive Chinese immigrant with tragic consequences.A frail waif, abused by her brutal boxer father in London's seedy Limehouse District, is befriended by a sensitive Chinese immigrant with tragic consequences.
IMDb RATING
7.3/10
10K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
15,780
5,167
  • Director
    • D.W. Griffith(under the personal direction of)
  • Writers
    • Thomas Burke(adapted from 'The Chink and the Child' by)
    • D.W. Griffith
  • Stars
    • Lillian Gish
    • Richard Barthelmess
    • Donald Crisp
Top credits
  • Director
    • D.W. Griffith(under the personal direction of)
  • Writers
    • Thomas Burke(adapted from 'The Chink and the Child' by)
    • D.W. Griffith
  • Stars
    • Lillian Gish
    • Richard Barthelmess
    • Donald Crisp
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 97User reviews
    • 76Critic reviews
  • See production, box office & company info
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 1 win

    Photos66

    "Broken Blossoms" Lillian Gish, Richard Barthelmess 1919 UA ** I.V.
    "Broken Blossoms" Lillian Gish 1919 UA ** I.V.
    "Broken Blossoms" Lillian Gish 1919 UA ** I.V.
    Lillian Gish and Richard Barthelmess in Katkenneita kukkasia (1919)
    Lillian Gish and Donald Crisp in Katkenneita kukkasia (1919)
    Lillian Gish in Katkenneita kukkasia (1919)
    Lillian Gish in Katkenneita kukkasia (1919)
    Lillian Gish in Katkenneita kukkasia (1919)
    Lillian Gish and Donald Crisp in Katkenneita kukkasia (1919)
    Lillian Gish and Richard Barthelmess in Katkenneita kukkasia (1919)
    Lillian Gish and Donald Crisp in Katkenneita kukkasia (1919)
    Lillian Gish and Donald Crisp in Katkenneita kukkasia (1919)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Lillian Gish
    Lillian Gish
    • Lucy - The Girl
    • (as Miss Lillian Gish)
    Richard Barthelmess
    Richard Barthelmess
    • Cheng Huan - The Yellow Man
    • (as Mr. Richard Barthelmess)
    Donald Crisp
    Donald Crisp
    • Battling Burrows
    Arthur Howard
    • Battling Burrows' Manager
    Edward Peil Sr.
    Edward Peil Sr.
    • Evil Eye
    • (as Edward Peil)
    George Beranger
    George Beranger
    • The Spying One
    Norman Selby
    • A Prizefighter
    Ernest Butterworth
    • Secondary Role
    • (uncredited)
    Fred Hamer
    • Secondary Role
    • (uncredited)
    Wilbur Higby
    • London Policeman
    • (uncredited)
    Man-Ching Kwan
    • Buddhist Monk
    • (uncredited)
    Bobbie Mack
    • Ringside Employee
    • (uncredited)
    Steve Murphy
    • Fight Spectator
    • (uncredited)
    George Nichols
    George Nichols
    • Police Constable
    • (uncredited)
    Karla Schramm
    • Burrows' Girlfriend
    • (uncredited)
    Bessie Wong
    • Girl in China
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • D.W. Griffith(under the personal direction of)
    • Writers
      • Thomas Burke(adapted from 'The Chink and the Child' by)
      • D.W. Griffith
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Cheng Huan is so saintly because D.W. Griffith knew there was a lot of Sinophobia in the US, and audiences would have trouble accepting a Chinese hero. In the original short story, Cheng Huan is just a guy who joined the Chinese merchant marines when he got into debt, grew tired of shipboard life and ended up in Limehouse, a multi-cultural port district in the poor section of London. He was never a Buddhist missionary or a pacifist, and fell just short of being a statutory rapist (albeit, he really loved Lucy); another part of rehabilitating his character was to change Lucy's age from 12 to 16. The audience is not supposed to think they had a sexual relationship, but if people played that out in their heads, it wasn't illegal (unless it was under US miscegenation laws, but Griffith kept the London setting). Anyway, it wasn't child-rape. In the original story, the only way in which Cheng Huan is morally superior to anyone else is his ahead-of-its-time compassion for Lucy. Griffith's personal copy of "Limehouse Nights", the book with the short story "The Chink and the Child"--on which this film is based--with all his screen writing marginal notes, still exists, in a rare book collection at the Lilly Library on the campus of Indiana University, along with a manuscript copy of the story by the author, with comments by Griffith and Lillian Gish.
    • Goofs
      The intertitles state, "The Buddha says, 'What thou dost not want others to do thee, do thou not to others.'" It was actually not the Buddha but Confucius' teaching.
    • Quotes

      Lucy Burrows: Don't do it, Daddy! You'll hit me once too often - and then they'll - they'll hang yer!

    • Connections
      Featured in The Philco Television Playhouse: The Birth of the Movies (1951)

    User reviews97

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    9/10
    Personally the best ever silent movie, completed in 1983
    This has been one of my all-time favourite films since I taped it off UK Channel 4 1st October 1988 on its second showing, one to savour and revel in every few years. There really is no choice: the only version worth seeing is this one, the Brownlow & Gill UK remaster with Louis F. Gottchalk's themes lushly orchestrated by David Cullen and Carl Davis and the Thames Silents Orchestra. 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. And the intelligent tinting was gorgeous too. Over the years I've even played it just for the music sometimes!

    The story? Depressed Chinese ex-missionary in London falls under the spell of listless poverty-stricken beautiful white 15 yo daughter of violent boxer. The crafty and base whites think the worst, but we know that the yellow man's love remained pure - even his worst foe says this ... 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. And then again some people have to get over a white man playing a Chinese man whilst simultaneously approving of miscegenation in these much more enlightened times! Would these same people be bothered if a Chinese played a white man? Along with Birth of a Nation and Intolerance, this was Griffiths' best work, pinnacles of the cinema.

    Utterly spellbinding poetic stuff for the enlightened, dreadful if your favourites are cgi-riddled and no older than 6 months. And don't expect a remotely happy ending! The beauty that all the world missed smote him to the heart (paraphrase).
    helpful•43
    10
    • Spondonman
    • Mar 26, 2006

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • October 28, 1923 (Finland)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Broken Blossoms
    • Filming locations
      • Fine Arts Studios - 4516 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA
    • Production company
      • D.W. Griffith Productions
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $88,000 (estimated)
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 30 minutes
    • Sound mix
      • Silent
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.33 : 1

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