147 Films & TV Shows Set In China During The 1930s
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Back to 1942
Henan Province The 1940s The 1930sHistory should never be forgotten โ In 1942, Henan Province was devastated by the most tragic famine in modern Chinese history, resulting in the deaths of at least three million men, women and children. Although the primary cause of the famine was a severe drought, it was exacerbated by locusts, windstorms, earthquakes, epidemic disease and the corruption of the ruling Kuomintang government.
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The Flowers of War
๐จ๐ณ China The 1930s The 1940sFighting for freedom โ A Westerner finds refuge with a group of women in a church during Japan's rape of Nanking in 1937. Posing as a priest, he attempts to lead the women to safety.
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Shanghai
Shanghai ๐น๐ญ Thailand The 1940s The 1930sAn American man returns to a corrupt, Japanese-occupied Shanghai four months before Pearl Harbor and discovers his friend has been killed. While he unravels the mysteries of the death, he falls in love and discovers a much larger secret that his own government is hiding.
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Caterpillar
๐จ๐ณ China The 1930s The 1940sDuring the Second Sino-Japanese War, in 1940, Lieutenant Kurokawa returns home as a honored and decorated soldier but deprived of his arms and legs lost in battle. All hopes, from the villagers and women to close family members, turn to Shigeko, the Lieutenant's wife. She must honor the Emperor and the country in setting an example for all by fulfilling her duty and taking care of the 'god soldier'. Kurokawa prior to leaving to fight in the war regularly beat and berated his wife for her barrenness and inability to bring him a son. When he returns home as an amputee with no hearing and no speech, his wife dutifully attends to him, even though he shows little appreciation for her dedicated care. His main concerns are getting fed and getting sex. Even in his own degraded condition, he manages to berate his wife. Eventually, though, his own memories infiltrate and he is haunted by his horrible, sadistic deeds, performed while in the duty of the Japanese military.
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Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen
๐ซ๐ท France Shanghai The 1920s The 1910s The 1930s The 1940sSeven years after the apparent death of Chen Zhen, who was shot after discovering who was responsible for his teacher's death (Huo Yuanjia) in Japanese-occupied Shanghai. A mysterious stranger arrives from overseas and befriends a local mafia boss. That man is a disguised Chen Zhen, who intends to infiltrate the mob when they form an alliance with the Japanese. Disguising himself as a caped fighter by night, Chen intends to take out everyone involved as well as get his hands on an assassination list prepared by the Japanese.
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The Way Back
๐ต๐ฑ Poland ๐ท๐บ Russia ๐ฎ๐ณ India ๐จ๐ณ China ๐ฒ๐ณ Mongolia The 1980s The 1940s The 1930sTheir escape was just the beginning. โ At the dawn of WWII, several men escape from a Russian gulagโto take a perilous and uncertain journey to freedom as they cross deserts, mountains and several nations.
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Death and Glory in Changde
๐จ๐ณ China The 1930s The 1940sDirected by Shen Dong and starring Ray Lui, An Yixuan and Yuan Wenkang, Death and Glory in Changde recalls one of the most cruel and controversial battles during China's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1937-45), Changde Battle, in November 1943.
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Once Upon a Time in Tibet
Tibet The 1930s The 1940sSet during the Second Sino-Japanese War(1937-1945), the US army brings supplies to China by flying over the Himalayas. A love story then ensues between an American pilot and a Tibetan girl who saved his life when his airplane crashed.
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A Jewish Girl in Shanghai
Shanghai The 1940s The 1930sBased upon the popular graphic novel by Wu Lin, this is the first Chinese animated film to portray the Holocaust. The film centers around the warm friendship between Rina, a wide-eyed European Jewish schoolgirl and A-Gen, a Chinese pancake seller, who teach each other about their distant worlds as Shanghai struggles beneath its own cruelly portrayed Japanese occupation.
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John Rabe
๐จ๐ณ China The 1930s The 1940sHistory Needs Extraordinary Heroes โ A true-story account of a German businessman who saved more than 200,000 Chinese during the Nanjing massacre in 1937-38.
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City of Life and Death
๐จ๐ณ China The 1930s The 1940sCity of Life and Death takes place in 1937, during the height of the Second Sino-Japanese War. The Imperial Japanese Army has just captured the then-capital of the Republic of China, Nanjing. What followed was known as the Nanking Massacre, or the Rape of Nanking, a period of several weeks wherein tens of thousands of Chinese soldiers and civilians were killed.
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The Message
๐จ๐ณ China The 1930s The 1940s1942, Nanjing (Nanking). Following a series of assassination attempts on officials of the Japanese-controlled puppet government, the Japanese spy chief gathers a group of suspects in a mansion house for questioning. A tense game of "cat and mouse" ensues as the Chinese code-breaker attempts to send out a crucial message while protecting his/her own identity.
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Cow
Shandong Province The 1930s The 1940sA Chinese peasant is given the responsibility of protecting his village's special dairy cow during a particularly harsh winter in 1940.
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The Children of Huang Shi
๐จ๐ณ China The 1940s The 1930sWar made them orphans, one man made them legends โ About young British journalist, George Hogg, who with the assistance of a courageous Australian nurse, saves a group of orphaned children during the Japanese occupation of China in 1937.
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Ip Man
Guangdong Province The 1940s The 1930sThe celebrated Kung Fu master of Bruce Lee. โ A semi-biographical account of Yip Man, the first martial arts master to teach the Chinese martial art of Wing Chun. The film focuses on events surrounding Ip that took place in the city of Foshan between the 1930s to 1940s during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Directed by Wilson Yip, the film stars Donnie Yen in the lead role, and features fight choreography by Sammo Hung.
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The Good, the Bad, the Weird
๐ฐ๐ท South Korea Jilin Province Liaoning Province The 1930s The 1940sA Fistful of Fun! โ The story of three Korean outlaws in 1930s Manchuria and their dealings with the Japanese army and Chinese and Russian bandits. The Good (a Bounty hunter), the Bad (a hitman), and the Weird (a thief) battle the army and the bandits in a race to use a treasure map to uncover the riches of legend.
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Philosophy of a Knife
๐ฏ๐ต Japan ๐จ๐ณ China The 1930s The 1940sThe true history of Japanese Unit 731, from its beginnings in the 1930s to its demise in 1945, and the subsequent trials in Khabarovsk, USSR, of many of the Japanese doctors from Unit 731. The facts are told, and previously unknown evidence is revealed by an eyewitness to these events, former doctor and military translator, Anatoly Protasov.
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Forever Enthralled
Beijing The 1930s The 1940sA biographical account of Mei Lanfang, China's greatest opera star.
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Lust, Caution
Shanghai ๐ญ๐ฐ Hong Kong The 1940s The 1930sDuring World War II a secret agent must seduce, then assassinate an official who works for the Japanese puppet government in Shanghai. Her mission becomes clouded when she finds herself falling in love with the man she is assigned to kill.
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Nanking
๐จ๐ณ China The 1930s The 1940sThe true story of how a few brave souls saved the lives of thousands. โ The story of the rape of Nanking, one of the most tragic events in history. In 1937, the invading Japanese army murdered over 200,000 and raped tens of thousands of Chinese. In the midst of this horror, a small group of Western expatriates banded together to save 250,000. Nanking shows the tremendous impact individuals can make on the course of history.
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Black Belt
๐จ๐ณ China ๐ฏ๐ต Japan The 1930s The 1940sReal Fight, Real Karate, Real Japan. โ Set in 1932, amid the rise of militarism after the establishment of the Manchukuo colony in Northeast China, the story centers on a trio of karateka. Studying under their aging master in a small dojo in the woods of central Kyushu, Choei, Taikan and Giryu face a company of kempeitai military police come to requisition their dojo for use as a military base.
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The Matrimony
Shanghai The 1930sTill Death Do Us Part โ A woman finds the key to a room in the attic that her husband forbids her from entering. When she opens the door, she is confronted with the haunting existence of the woman her husband refuses to forget.
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Blood Brothers
Shanghai The 1930sThe days of innocence have passed. They must make their choices like men. But at what costs? Is blood really thicker than water? โ Fung (Daniel Wu) and his best friends, brothers Kang (Liu Ye) and Hu (Tony Yang), leave the countryside together to make it big in Shanghai. Things aren't so easy in the city, however, and the brothers stumble and toil until opportunity brings them to Club Paradise and ruthless mob boss Hong (Sun Honglei). While Kang embraces his newfound power in the Shanghai triad, Fung and Hu are less comfortable with the crime and violence, sending the brothers slowly but surely down opposite paths. Fung falls for Hong's woman, sassy nightclub singer Lulu (Shu Qi) who is also involved with Hong's top henchman Mark (Chang Chen). When Hong catches scent of the betrayal, he sends Kang to finish off business, leading the brothers to meet at gunpoint on a cold Shanghai night. Set in Shanghai during the 1930s, the story is inspired by John Woo's classic work Bullet in the Head, released in 1990.
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The Go Master
๐จ๐ณ China The 1930s The 1940sThe Go Master is a 2006 biopic by director Tian Zhuangzhuang of renowned twentieth century Go master Wu Qingyuan, better known by his adopted name of Go Seigen. The film, which premiered at the 44th New York Film Festival, focuses on the life of this extraordinary player from his meteoric rise as a child prodigy to fame and fortune as a revolutionary strategic thinker, as well as the tumultuous global conflicts between his homeland and his adopted nation. The film also features a scene involving the Atomic bomb go game.
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The White Countess
Shanghai The 1930s The 1940sIin 1930s Shanghai, 'The White Countess' is both Sofiaโa fallen member of the Russian aristocracyโand a nightclub created by a blind American diplomat, who asks Sofia to be the centerpiece of the world he wants to create.
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