6.7 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Set in war-torn Shanghai, this visually stunning melodrama opens as Megan, the fiancée of a missionary, arrives in China for their marriage. Their plans are interrupted by civil war and Megan finds herself caught in a riot after visiting an orphanage. General Yen, a ruthless Chinese warlord, rescues and whisks her away to safety in his palace. Megan soon suspects she is not his guest but his prisoner yet she begins to feel a strange attraction to her captor. The once controversial topic of interracial romance between a Caucasian woman and a Chinese man earned this film some notoriety upon its release but Capra considered it a "strangely poetic romance" which was a risky art film for its era.
Starring: Barbara Stanwyck, Nils Asther, Walter Connolly, Gavin Gordon, Lucien LittlefieldRomance | 100% |
Drama | 21% |
War | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.37:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono
French: Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Spanish: Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
There are some inherent ironies at play for modern viewers of one of Frank Capra’s lesser remembered films, 1933’s The Bitter Tea of General Yen. The film offers a kinda sorta romance between an American woman named Megan Davis (Barbara Stanwyck) and a Chinese general named Yen (Nils Asther), something that was deemed pretty shocking back in the day and which would seem to indicate that the film is rather forward thinking. However, The Bitter Tea of General Yen also offers a veritable grabbag of commentary about the Chinese that my hunch is Asians in particular are going to find pretty objectionable. Aside from the once accepted but now disparaged casting of a non-Asian in the title role, the film has both other presentational and overt plot references that seem to suggest the Chinese are “savages” in various ways. Early in the film, at a Shanghai party where some assembled multitudes await what they expect to be the wedding of Megan and missionary Robert Strike (Gavin Gordon), a Caucasian minister talks about thinking he had really made an impact on some Mongols by relaying the story of the crucifixion to them, only to come to the horrifying conclusion that the reason they were paying such rapt attention is that they were gaining information so that they could crucify their enemies. The fact that Capra chooses to follow this alarming anecdote with a whip pan to a seemingly representative Chinese man gives the film a rather uneasy subtext quite a bit of the time. Even this opening sequence shows Chinese obviously decked out to “resemble” Westerners in their attire, with them singing and playing traditional Christian hymns, as if to suggest that the “natives” had been civilized in some fashion. For viewers in 1933, this was probably accepted as easily as the casting of Asther as General Yen, but for modern day eyes and sensibilities, I suspect that many may find there to be some disconnect between the film’s frankly kind of weird romantic angle and some of the perspective our contemporary reactions bring to some of the underlying representations of Chinese in general (no pun intended) in the film.
The Bitter Tea of General Yen is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.33:1. Sony is one of the more reliable curators of its catalog, and this is another often pretty luscious looking transfer, though it needs to be viewed with an understanding that Capra and cinematographer Joseph Walker intentionally softened a lot of the presentation courtesy of various diffusion filtering techniques (including allegedly using a silk stocking over the lens). As such, a lot of the visuals can be slightly hazy in appearance (see screenshot 1), though even in many of these shots fine detail in elements like hair and patterns on fabrics still look precise and well rendered. There are some occasional minor signs of age related wear and tear (if you look closely at screenshot 19, you'll see a very fine scratch running down the middle of the frame, which is the overall level of any problematic material). The film does have a lot of opticals, and some of those have baked in issues which can affect both grain resolution and detail levels. Grain does ebb and flow somewhat even aside and apart from things like optical dissolves. Contrast is really strong throughout the presentation, supporting good, deep blacks and nicely modulated gray scale.
The Bitter Tea of General Yen features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track that can't escape the technologies of its era but which sound reasonably full bodied. Some of the music, including things like the Chinese "converts" playing Christian hymns in the opening sequence, can sound slightly brash in the upper registers, and some of the war torn sound effects are a bit boxy, as in a firing squad that Megan witnesses. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. The entire track is very narrow and shallow sounding, but doesn't really have any egregious signs of damage. Optional English subtitles are available.
This is a bare bones release that doesn't even have a Main Menu, and which instead boots directly to the presentation after the FBI warnings. The Pop Up Menu provides access to the other language tracks as well as to the subtitles.
The Bitter Tea of General Yen is a decidedly odd picture, and it's not really hard to see why it didn't connect with audiences very strongly when it was originally released. Probably unfortunately, there are only going to be more obstacles for many modern day viewers whose "PC" antennae may start vibrating due to some of the film's presentational and representational proclivities. Still, those interested in film history, and specifically fans of either Stanwyck and/or Capra will probably want to check this out. Technical merits are generally solid for those considering a purchase.
1945
1932
1931
The Roadshow Edition
1944
Warner Archive Collection
1937
1932
Limited Edition to 3000
1957
1931
1934
Limited Edition to 3000
1979
1937
Warner Archive Collection
1945
Fox Studio Classics
1960
1936
1946
1939
1931
1937
Limited Edition to 3000 - SOLD OUT
1955
1935