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OPEN CLASSIC CINEMA · 615

The Great Road

1934104 minChina

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.

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Video edition: Wikimedia Commons
Original language: No spoken dialogue. Intertitles: Chinese.
This copy runs: 103:31
Subtitles: No subtitle track in this language

No spoken dialogue. Intertitles: Chinese. No subtitle track in this language.

Languages and subtitles

No subtitle track in this language

Wikimedia Commons · Sun Yu · Public domain

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

Work catalogued as public domain in the United States.

The public-domain references concern the original films in the United States. Rights can differ for other countries, editions, restorations, music or translations. Sources are listed on each film page.

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

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