A young missionary travels to Shanghai to marry her childhood sweetheart who is a missionary out there. She gets injured when rescuing a group of orphans during an uprising and is taken captive by a Chinese Warlord, General Yen. A spot of Stockholm syndrome later and she has fallen for him.
Quite a beautiful film visually and the story is much darker than the norm from this age. Stanwyck's Megan is a real powerhouse to start with, but slowly but surely becomes a sappy mess. Nils Astor is an odd choice. Another peg in Hollywood Asian racism? Possibly. The film has Asian actors in supporting roles (Toshia Mori as the double-crossing Mah-Li is particularly fine), so why cast a Dane as the General and cover him in distracting make-up that makes him look very creepy and monstrous?
It's an odd story with bizarre character arcs. I didn't find anyone particularly sympathetic and the plot was quite ancillary. Left me a touch bored.
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