Bombs Over Burma (1942)

Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Purely Joyful Movie!

I gave it a 7.5 out of 10

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

"Bombs Over Burma" is a cheap B-movie from PRC...a tiny production company that specialized in making cheap, crappy B-movies! Usually, when I see that a movie is from PRC, I significantly lower my expectations! This film, it turns out, is no exception.When the film begins, a teacher (Anna May Wong) is alarmed because the town is being attacked by Japanese planes. However, one of the children in the class is amazingly dim....and instead of seeking shelter, this terrible little actor dances about...enjoying the Japanese carnage! Soon, he's assuming room temperature...and his death scene is unintentionally funny. Soon, the teacher is recruited for a mission to help her people...and she ends up stuck on the Burma Road with several others. Soon, it becomes apparent that one of them is in league with the Japanese...and they need to figure it out quickly.Apart from the overuse of stock footage as well as the bad acting by the child, the film is amazingly dull considering it's all about war. Watchable but honestly I had a hard time sticking with this one.

This starts quite promising lee, with school teacher Anna May Wong all of a sudden interrupted in her class when the Japanese begin to bomb the area where she is. It gains emotional support when a child is gunned down, pretending to shoot at the planes but unaware that he is about to become a target. That disturbing opening is followed by nearly 40 minutes of practically nothing else going on as Wong become surrounded by American and English visitors who suspect each other as possibly being a spy, and not for the right side. There are some long moment of silence for pretty much nothing happens, and it becomes almost impossibly tedious. Of course this all explodes for an action packed finale where locals rush to Wong's aid as the identity of who the villain truly leads to a grizzly conclusion. After the previous year's The Lady from Chungking, I had hopes that this PRC drama would be as exciting as its predecessor. Unfortunately that was not to be the case. Wong is still lovely and there are some interesting moments of photography. But this is like many other World War II propaganda films made during the time in which it takes place. All flag waving on the outside, but inside truly nothing but a shell of a plot and very little to keep the momentum of the film going.

Anna May Wong (Lin) is a schoolteacher assigned on a mission by the Chinese Resistance to discover who is tipping off the Japanese for bombing raids. Targets seem to be pinpointed with expert knowledge. On a bus journey, Wong and a cast of characters are held up at a monastery where it becomes obvious that the traitor is among them.This film has a couple of memorable sequences – the beginning section at the school and the end section at the head of the convoy – that make it a better film than I had expected. There is also some humour thrown in from the naughty schoolboy. My wife and I laughed out loud when he is left in the classroom alone to throw all the schoolwork everywhere. He also has a funny moment where he knows he is wrong and gets up and puts on the naughty hat without any prompting. Very funny.Unfortunately, the sound quality is poor and this does interfere with some of the dialogue but overall, given the different subject matter, it has to score for novelty value. It's a short film and it's OK entertainment while it lasts.

Some B movies transcend, others lower themselves into the "so bad t's funny' category. But most fall into the general category of 'good B-movie" - entertaining but forgettable.This film can be enjoyed as a good B-movie, If one doesn't know much of film history, there it ends - a solid B- movie from the early '40s.But pay attention! I've watched this film several times - it's actually difficult to watch, the scene where the young boy gets wasted by Japanese machine gun fire is not fun. But the images keep pulling me along.This is a great film, for two reasons. First, director Lewis, cinematographer Cline and editor Henkel are using the film to work out knowledge of film history that more mainstream studios would not have allowed then - Sergei Eisentein's influence is all over the film.Secondly, Anna May Wong - a great actress relegated to small parts as the 'sultry Asian' - she is truly magnificent here, this performance would have won an Oscar for any other actress at a later time.Yes it's still a B-movie plot and much of the dialog has to conform to that. But so much of this is rich in construction and detail that I insist it remains a classic - unrecognized but undeniable.