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Synopsis
Unemployed labourers leave Shanghai to build a road through the countryside. Friendship, jokes and flirtation sustain the crew until sabotage turns the work into a dangerous test of solidarity. Their everyday effort becomes part of a struggle whose stakes extend far beyond the road itself.
Cast
DirectorsSun Yu
Behind the scenes
Produced in 1934 and released on January 1, 1935, the film combines silent-era storytelling with synchronized music and sound. Its working-class ensemble lets comedy and physical camaraderie coexist with an increasingly urgent national-defence narrative.
Sources and availability
The synopsis and editorial text were written for this collection. The references below were cross-checked to identify the film and its copy; each editorial section identifies its reference.
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.
- Jin Yan — Unknown photographer, 1930s; Wikimedia Commons. · Public domain — PD-China and PD-1996
- Li Lili — Unknown photographer, 1930s; source Sina, via Wikimedia Commons. Commons source was already denoised and sharpened. · Public domain — PD-China and PD-1996
- Chen Yanyan — Liangyou (The Young Companion), issue 96, October 1934; Chen Yanyan is the standing actress, as identified by the English Wikipedia caption; via Wikimedia Commons. · Public domain — PD-China and PD-1996
