Back to the collection

OPEN CLASSIC CINEMA · 611

Daybreak

193397 minChina

Video edition: YouTube
Original language: No spoken dialogue. Intertitles: Chinese.
This copy runs: 97:29
Subtitles: Subtitles embedded in the picture

Languages and subtitles

Subtitles embedded in the picture

These subtitles are part of the video and cannot be turned off. YouTube controls playback availability, which may vary by region.

Synopsis

Two young people leave the countryside hoping to build a life in Shanghai. Factory work and city streets expose them to exploitation rather than the opportunity they imagined. Their paths separate, but affection and political upheaval bring them together again under circumstances that demand more than a private act of loyalty.

Cast

Li Lili

Gao Zhanfei

Luo Peng

Liu Jiqun

DirectorsSun Yu

Historical context

Sun Yu uses the rural-to-urban journey to link personal misfortune with a wider social order. Li Lili’s physical expressiveness carries much of the argument in a film made during Shanghai’s transition from silent to sound production.

Sources and availability

General references identify the work and its copy. A reference beside an editorial section is linked to the claims checked in that section.

Virtual Shanghai · CNRS Wikipedia Chinese Film Classics Wikimedia Commons · copyright reference China · Copyright Law, Article 23 US Copyright Office · foreign works Internet Archive · film copy

Work catalogued as public domain in the United States.

The reference concerns the original work. Restorations, colorization, translations and other territories may have different conditions. This site uses the player enabled by the channel.

Availability checked on September 11, 2026.

Photograph credit

Photographs cropped, resized and optimized as WebP, displayed in monochrome.

Li Lili — Unknown photographer, 1930s; source Sina, via Wikimedia Commons. Commons source was already denoised and sharpened. · Public domain — PD-China and PD-1996

Audience rating

Loading ratings…