Xiao-zhong Yang

Ah Gen's mother died young, and the boy lives with his father, Hu Yuan, and a shrewish step-mother. Mrs. Hu #2 disapproves of her husband's gambling, loafing, and fishing and is cruel to them both, sometimes spanking father and son and sending them to bed without supper. She also has a lover, the thuggish Li Cheng, who commits murder and plans to run away with Mrs. Hu, leaving her "turtle" of a husband to take the rap. Who will save poor daddy! Heroic son to the rescue!

The Mighty Hero Gan Fengchi 大俠甘鳳池 (1928) is a partially extant silent film released in China by the Great Wall Film Company during a peak in popularity of the wuxia (martial chivalry) genre. The surviving 23 minutes of the film are filled with fight scenes, eye-catching sets, and special effects—notably multiple disappearances into thin air and an airborne clash between three “light sabers” that shoot out of the warriors’ palms. As we pick up the story, Gan Fengchi and his two children...