Lady from Chungking

Anna May Wong's regal beauty and charisma stands out like a diamond in a in a sea of rhinestones in Lady From Chungking, one of two wartime propaganda film she did for PRC Pictures. The film looks like it was shot on a western film location and has some western like aspects.

Anna's a patrician lady here who is doing a little espionage work for the Chinese Resistance. Once exposed to her charms Japanese general Harold Huber shows absolutely no resistance. Mata Hari had nothing on Anna May Wong.

This film's location is some backwater part of western China. Until Chiang Kai-Shek chose it as his capital in exile Chungking itself was as backwater a town as you could find. Huber's presence means that a Japanese army can't be far behind and Anna's mission is to find out what Huber is up to.

in the backwater is also Ludwig Donath as a German café owner with Mae Clarke who plays a singer in his dive. Clarke is an anachronism here. Her character is supposed to the daughter of a Russian father and an American mother and Clarke's never seen the USA. She may never have seen it, but she sure sounds it. She must have listened to a lot of radio broadcasts and seen a lot of movies, especially Joan Blondell movies.

Add a couple of downed Flying Tigers, Rick Vallin and Paul Bryar who is from, where else, Brooklyn and you have all the ingredients.

Anna May Wong gives this film an extra couple of notches, but it's still a Poverty Row PRC film and that's never a good sign.

"Lady from Chungking" was a Wartime propaganda-style Flag-Waver made on a shoestring budget that really shows. The only real reason for watching this film today is for its' star, Anna May Wong.

Ms. Wong's career was a study in contrast and conflict. The conflict was her battle for professional recognition and against prejudice. The contrast was that so often her genuine talent and truly great beauty and poise was put on display alongside actors who couldn't hold a candle to her and in films made as cheaply as possible.

"Lady from Chungking", although made relatively late in her career, is a typical example of all the above. Ms. Wong OWNS every scene she appears in - as was true of most her work. Her co-stars appear dull and forced beside her. The "Chinese" sets are nothing but trinkets and wall-hangings and cheap furniture - usually dimly lit in hopes we won't notice. The Japanese general's uniform looks like it came from leftovers of "The Emperor Jones". As is typical of these films, only REAL Asian actors sound legit(because they talk like the ordinary Americans they were), while all the Whites playing Asian roles sound incredibly Racist and Fake precisely because they are trying to sound Asian!!

Then just when you're ready to chuck the whole thing - along comes another scene with Anna May Wong. She was an excellent talent, a True Star, and a Fashion Icon in her day and it is obvious every time she is on camera. There are certainly better Anna May Wong films out there but if this one is available take the chance to see it. Ms. Wong is the "Pearl" in this oyster of a film and you will be rewarded if you take the time to find her in it.

Six Stars only as even Anna can't work miracles here.

This is a stilted and rather creaky wartime film, made on a low budget and meant to boost morale, so it certainly won't be for everyone. It made for interesting viewing for me, however, because of the luminous presence of Anna May Wong, who didn't disappoint. It's fantastic that her character is the leader of the Chinese resistance to Japanese occupation which gave the film an unexpected aspect of feminism, and her performance is strong. Mae Clarke is wonderful here too. The story is skeletal and rather hokey, but there is power in the film being set in China given the atrocities that were taking place there, and Wong's speech at the end still inspires:

"You cannot kill me. You cannot kill China. Not even a million deaths could crush the soul of China, for the soul of China is eternal. When I die, a million will take my place, and nothing can stop them, neither hunger, nor torture, nor the firing squad. We shall live on until the enemy is driven back over scorched land and hurled into the sea. That time will come soon, for the armies of decency and liberty are on the march. China's destiny is victory. It will live because human freedom will not perish. Out of the ashes of ruin and the old hatreds, the force of peace will prevail, until the world is again sane and beautiful."

Overall, this is a solid if unspectacular wartime drama, with a message that was important at the time. But Anna May Wong's performance lifts it well above the norm for its genre, and although it seems likely that she was cast primarily so as to lend her charm and her reputation to the movie's message, the movie serves quite well as a showcase for her own considerable abilities.

The story has Wong as the leader of a resistance group to the Japanese occupation of China, and while the film definitely has a low-budget look to it, the atmosphere is generally convincing. Mae Clarke does a good job and is rather appealing herself, as a cynical singer whose loyalties are obscure. As the Japanese general with whom Wong's character must match wits, Harold Huber is too obviously not Asian for the role to work completely, but he does do a solid job of portraying the general as greedy yet short-sighted, egotistical but foolish.

Wong gets plenty of good material to work with, and she does an excellent job with all of it. At times she must act as a meek subject of the occupiers, at other times a tough-minded leader in a desperate situation. Then, in the scenes when she tries to win the general's confidence, she is finally able to do justice to her beauty and her elegant reserve. She makes it very convincing to believe that she could captivate a man much tougher than General Kaimura. Finally, in the speech that drives home the movie's message, her voice works very well in delivering the message.

Anna May Wong is certainly better remembered for her roles in other, far more lavish productions than this. Without her, "Lady from Chungking" would a well-meaning but generally nondescript feature. But it's easily worth seeing for the opportunities that it gives her to provide an example of her wide range of abilities.

Anna May Wong plays the leader of a Chinese resistance group under the control of Japanese invaders during World War 2. Basically, she is the only good thing about the film. Wong fools the Japanese General Harold Huber that she loves him so that she can obtain information about incoming Japanese troops which she can then pass on to the Resistance fighters. She gets the required info and carries out her own mission. It's an OK film that is carried by Anna May Wong. It has a cheesy preachy ending and the cast are all wrong except the actual Chinese people and Wong. It scores marks for its different setting and for Wong. That's it – nothing more to say.