Back to the collection

OPEN CLASSIC CINEMA · 615

The Great Road

1934104 minChina

Video edition: YouTube
Original language: No spoken dialogue. Intertitles: Chinese.
This copy runs: 103:33
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

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

Jin Yan

Li Lili

Chen Yanyan

Zheng Junli

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

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

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

Audience rating

Loading ratings…