Broken Blossoms

D.W. Griffith's 1919 silent film "Broken Blossoms" is an allegorical, melodramatic tragedy about a teenager who lives with an abusive father, and is loved by a gentle, young Chinese man. All three characters come to tragic ends. Shot in a Hollywood studio, the small-scale story takes place in a London slum, and Griffith's cinematic techniques match the film's narrative as the haunting story is told through an arrangement of moving images. The film is subtitled "The Yellow Man and the Girl," and its content deals with forbidden interracial romance, child abuse and broken dreams.

The story is told by interweaving two narratives. The structure is based on the classical three unities dramatic rule of Time, Place and Action. Griffith's use of parallel editing and inter-cutting unifies the narratives. For example, the idealistic Cheng Huan (Caucasian actor Richard Barthelmess made up to look like the "Yellow Man") is shown at the beginning of the film leaving China to bring the word of the Buddha to residents of London's Limehouse district where he proceeds to lose his ideals and become a drug addict. The passage of time is indicated by a title card saying "some years l

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Category: Film - B