THE BITTER TEA OF GENERAL YEN

US, 1933, 88 minutes, Black and white.
Barbara Stanwyck, Nils Astor, Toshia Mori, Walter Connolly.
Directed by Frank Capra.

The Bitter Tea of General Yen is a story about civil war in China. There have been many stories about China in the 1920s and 30s, stories of the warlords, stories of the missionaries (The Sand Pebble, The Painted Veil).

This film takes place over a week, focusing on a young American woman who has come to China to marry her fiancé, a missionary. The country is in civil war. General Yen, one of the warlords, has come to Shanghai and the missionary wants to get permission to evacuate some orphans. The young American woman encounters the general first at the scene of an accident where he seems to show callous disregard for human life. When the orphans are evacuated, she is knocked out and rescued by the general. She spends a week at his summer palace and gradually becomes infatuated by him. He, a mercenary man, yet with strong beliefs, especially about change and the afterlife, becomes fascinated by the American. When she finally admits that she would stay with him, he commits suicide.

This was not the expected material for 1933, nor from Frank Capra who had had a successful career with a range of films up to this point. The next year he was to win the Oscar for It Happened One Night and begin his social films, Mr Deeds Goes to Town, Mr Smith Goes to Washington, and his post-war classic, It’s a Wonderful Life.

Barbara Stanwyck had appeared in The Miracle Woman for Capra. Nils Astor was a silent Scandinavian star who did not succeed so well in the talkies because of his accent.

The film is rather contemplative in its approach, asks the audience to reflect on civil war and China, Chinese characters (considered primitive by the stuck-up Americans) and the clash between Chinese ways of thinking and American ways.

1.A film of the 1930s? The China in the 1920s and 30s? American attitudes? Religious interest, missionaries and conversion? The warlords and finance?

2.The studio sets, Shanghai, the battles, the trains and cars, the orphanage? The summer palace and its lavish interiors? The score?

3.The topicality of the film in its time, the civil war, the generals seen as gangsters, warlords and their provinces, American finance and advice?

4.The setting, Americans in China, their attitude towards the Chinese, snobbishness? Their chatter, isolated? Preparations for the wedding? Doctor Strike and his delay, the orphans, the need for a document, his rescuing them, his being hit over the head?

5.Megan, her arrival, the rickshaw, the encounter with General Yen and his callous attitudes? Her arrival at the wedding, the groom, wanting to go for the orphans, her wanting to go with him, willing to take the risk, sharing in the experience, the rescue of the orphans, the shootings?

6.General Yen, warlord, gangster, Jones as his financial adviser? His mocking tone? Attitude towards the doctor? The soldiers laughing at the report and pass that he had provided, mocking him?

7.Megan, her being hit, waking, Mah-Li? and her helping her? Her letters to Doctor Strike, Mah-Li? giving them to General Yen? Her love for Colonel Li and the secrecy?

8.Megan recovering, her angers, the Chinese clothes, the refusal of meals? Her dreams and the fascination with General Yen? The film communicating the inner depths and psychology through the dream sequences? Her disdain in reality? Her stay, the influence of the general?

9.Yen in himself, his charm, callous attitudes, the traditions, orphans having no ancestors …? Colonel Li, Mah-Li? and her help? His imposing presence? Presence? His fascination with Megan, love?

10.The philosophical background, stoic, the nature of death, afterlife, change? His romantic speeches, the cherry moon?

11.Megan and the effect, stay, changing into Chinese clothes, General Yen and his tea, her willingness to stay, his drinking the tea and killing himself?

12.Jones, Megan on the boat back to Shanghai, the reflection, what had happened to her? Whether she would marry Doctor Strike or not? The changes to her, her future? The film as a symbolic challenge by China to America?