Broken Blossoms

That white guy hit the opium den so hard he turned asian.

It tries to be so much, a tale of forbidden love, a light examination of racism, a story about poverty and abuse, but it spreads itself too thin and has too many slow moments to really be effective. While the constant referencing of the chinese character as "chink" and "yellow man" could come off as social commentary in better films, or overt racism in worse ones, it mostly just makes the film come off as ignorant and simplistic. It's ultimately interesting to watch, but not especially good.

A few sticky racist issues aside, the story is tender and engaging, the subject matter is admirable, the text of the intertitles is lovely and poetic, and the tragedy is touching. However, it's all a bit simplistic and the characters are so one-dimensional they might as well be straight out of a Popeye cartoon. I found the cinematic style rather uninteresting except for a few close-ups. Mostly it's the kind of thing that might have been impressive for its time, but seems a bit ho-hum nowadays.

Boring has hell, and no matter how hard Barthelmess squints he doesn't look Asian, it's poorly written and melodramatic. I'm sure there's still a group of centenarian southerners out there who could watch this and smile, talking about the good old days when it was all right to be racist.

DW Griffith just can't help but be racist. Even when he's trying to paint the Chinese as the good characters he has Lillian Gish using "Chinky" as a term of endearment and the title cards constantly referring to "the yellow man." It's also largely a fairly dull movie, though there is compelling melodrama for the last 20 minutes or so. Still, not enough to save this.

Oh god, a bad case of a movie desperately trying to be profound while characters are as one-dimensional as possible, New Yorker with baked face is playing Asian and these fucking intertitles are like some poetry wirtten by 13-y.o. in love.

So ridiculously overrated. The style is really bland and the characters are ridiculous. Some of the title cards made me cringe cause they were so fucking stupid. However, their are some funny moments but very very few. The racism is a bit ridiculous too but sometimes hilarious - unintentionally.

Griffith tries to say he's not racist by making an incredibly racist film. But if you look past that, it has some amazing acting (especially from Gish and Crisp) and it winds up being quite entertaining.

Extremely heavy-handed to the point that I can't play along or get invested. Acting is mostly quite terrible but the actors haven't got much to work with as the characters are one-dimensional, stupid and stereotypical. The film is also tainted by racism and a condescending tone throughout. The ending and cinematography makes up for quite a bit of it, but overall this was pretty disappointing.

Watched for pure entertainment, rather than historic, value I'd say this is lacking. I'm pretty sure a Chinese actor could have played the Chinese character at least as well as Barthelmess. And what's with the smattering of gems like "What makes you so good to me, Chinky?" A somewhat bad taste left in mouth.

This is a really, really funny movie.

Lucy is excellent, but Cheng Huan is very slimy and unlikable, and Battling Burrows is WAY too comical for me to take him seriously. On top of that, the title cards are very on the nose and unnecessary, and too little time is spent on the relationship between Cheng Huan and Lucy. Luckily, it feels very quick.

A great film text, but too overly melodramatic and offensive to be a pleasurable viewing experience. Despite its place in film history it doesn't hold a candle to other Griffith films.

Griffith allows the lovers dignity that a lesser filmmaker may not have afforded them with a conclusion that is powerfully moving, and hauntingly beautiful. "Intolerance" is the director's greatest achievement, but "Broken Blossoms" is his most emotional masterpiece, and after 94 years, it still packs a wallop.

With such racist overtones, horrible inconsistencies, and a severely depressing melodramatic conclusion, how can I possibly say I enjoyed this movie? It's worth watching, if for no other reason than its significance in the development of film techniques. Parts of it reminded me of Commedia dell'arte, in that each character is flat and serves only one purpose.

eh meh. izlenir. millet 2020'de bok gibi filmler çekiyor yani. hayli hayli izlenir

It's too simplistic to be a truly gripping melodrama, but it's done well and it's enjoyable. It always looks good and Gish - who also looks good - gives a very good performance.

This is the sort of melodrama that didn't age well. It doesn't have the same impact as the epic Intolerance.

Griffith doing his blunt stuff and it's actually kind of good. I am a sucker for Lillian Gish, though, and the racist tendencies are kept at a minimum with the white men in ridiculous, villainous characterizations.

This one is better suited to the historians. It's essentially theater with literary (and unintendedly racist) commentary.

Far from being an apology for The Birth of a Nation and certainly a film with plenty of racist issues itself, but there is at least some small amount of empathy here. It's an alright picture with a particularly phenomenal performance from Lilian Gish.

lilian gish'in tatliligi

# 100

Even for the time period the overacting in this was intense, that being said, I enjoyed this for the most part even if the story felt truncated.

I wanted it to transcend its limitations but just about every level of it creeped me out; forget, if you can, the weird racial stuff, and notice how we're supposed to like this "Yellow Man" because he didn't fuck that 16-year-old (she's 12 in the book) while she was recuperating from being beaten by her father. AND THEN I PULLED OUT MY GUUUUUN.

the only thing offensive about this movie is it's pacing/editing, up until the last 15 minutes. I think you can only expect a certain level of forward-thinking in respect to racism from a guy in 1919, it was an honest effort.

Gish gives one of the great performances here. And Griffith atones--at least in part--for "Birth of a Nation."

112

Quite a powerful film and even difficult to endure in parts, but the picture it paints is a fairly undistorted reality of something that exists around us.

Score based on distant memory.

Griffith finally catches up with the advances in lighting, editing, and closeups in recent years, and uses them to establish a poetic tone, especially in the slow, shadowy middle and its transition to the disturbing, violent end. However, all this is undermined by a barrage of ludicrous bathos: the "dowry" under the brick, the "forced smile", "Chinky", the entirety of Donald Crisp's performance, etc.

85.50

D.W. Griffith's not a racist! That's what's so insane about this!

Unintentionally hilarious nowadays. But it's still great.

Bullshit ending. A real chinaman would have used his fists instead of a gun.

The last 40 years have aged D.W. Griffith's BROKEN BLOSSOMS more terribly than the sixty years prior ever did. Apart from some establishing shots that are still moody and gorgeous to this day, the one scene that still has real power is the outright horror sequence in which Gish, trapped in a closet, practically looses her mind as Crisp chops the door down with an axe. Her actual death scene is still pure Grand Opera.

Griffith iyi de Amerika'nin ici bos optimizmini ve her dusunceyi ve kulturu fazla fazla basitlestirmesini -bi de bunu gururla yapmasini- sevmiyorum.

This melodrama hasn't really aged well; it's too trivial to see all sorts of stereotypes in the classism and racism this rather bland romance presents. From a cinematographic perspective, though, there are some interesting bits (the sets were impressive).

I know it's of the time, and objectively, it's a great movie, but it's really difficult for me to get over the racism of this one.

a sweet (and then despairing) little film that tries to preach peace and racial tolerance, which is kind of interesting given griffith's reputation. the portrayal of asians here (and women for that matter) is condescending, with endearing casual references to 'the chinks'.

"The love story at the center of Broken Blossoms is deliberately overstuffed but unmistakably colored with infinite shades of biting irony and social critique." - Ed Gonzalez

Casual racism, flowery intertitles, and brazen manipulation detract from what is otherwise a simple, lovely film. Griffith works in some gorgeous shots, but when put against his other work it's far more basic -- that's to be expected though, given the more intimate nature of this film. Still, it's a refined, succinct, and lovely film from an era where that really counts for something.

119

We don't need to give Griffith a pass on the many race fails and general Orientalism in this film, but it's easy to get distracted from what Griffith is doing on a visual & symbolic level, which is challenging the West's patriarchal & imperial legacy. Note how we are told Gish is playing Crisp's daughter, but everything we see presents her as his wife or concubine. Consider what the 3 leads represent, as suggested by their body language & the way Griffith frames them. Note the role of opium.

Hasn't aged well, though is probably progressive for the time in some ways--surprising compared to Birth of a Nation. Deals with an interracial (non) romance. Gish is good. The scene with the axe to the bathroom door and Gish cowering in the corner reminded me of the famous scene from The Shining--I wonder if Kubrick drew inspiration from it. Ultimately a bit slow and the cultural insensitivity and slurs don't help a modern watch.

gish oh gosh what did I just watch

Gish is quite good, while Griffith's use of multiple levels in some shots provides some visual flair. However, the melodrama, which is pretty good, doesn't kick in for quite some time, leaving the whole first section of the film feeling overlong.

#125

I prefer "The Bitter Tea of General Yen" to that.