Back to the collection

OPEN CLASSIC CINEMA · 608

Volcanic Passions

193296 minChina

Adventure Drama Romance

Video edition: YouTube
Original language: No spoken dialogue. Intertitles: Chinese.
This copy runs: 95:45
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

After a warlord’s relative destroys his family, a young man escapes to a tropical settlement of Chinese workers. A dancer offers him the possibility of a different life, but the arrival of his old enemy reopens the wound. Romance and revenge move toward a confrontation beneath an increasingly threatening volcano.

Cast

Li Lili

Zheng Junli

Tan Ying

Tang Tianxiu

DirectorsSun Yu

Behind the scenes

Sun Yu moves familiar Shanghai melodramatic conflicts into an imagined South Seas world. The selected subtitled edition uses a VHS-derived copy made accessible by Columbia University Libraries; its visual limitations reflect that source.

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

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…