In the years leading up to Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, Chinese cinema had already begun preparing for it. Following the Mukden Incident in 1931, a false flag attack by Japanese troops on a railway line in northeastern China as pretense to invade Manchuria, Chinese filmmakers began incorporating themes of social crisis, injustice, and national survival into their work.

As tensions escalated, film evolved from cultural commentary into a medium of resistance, helping to shape public opinion and mobilize support for the war effort.

At the time, Shanghai’s film industry was dominated by the so-called “big three” studios: the Mingxing Film Company, established in 1922; the Tianyi Film Company, founded in 1925; and the Lianhua Film Company, started in 1930.

Under the direction of the Communist Party of China (CPC), cultural figures including Shen Naixi (also known by the pen name “Xia Yan”), Qian Defu (pen name “A Ying”), and Wang Chengmo (pen name “Wang Chenwu”) formed a CPC film group and began participating in productions with the Mingxing Film Company, marking the beginning of left-wing influence in Chinese filmmaking.

Released in 1933, “Torrent,” directed by Cheng Bugao and written by Xia Yan, is often seen as the film that launched China’s “Left-Wing Cinema Movement.” In it, Liu Tiesheng, a primary school teacher caught in a flood, confronts a rigid bureaucracy and helps his community survive the disaster.

At the time, Chinese cinema was dominated by sweeping melodramas, many influenced by traditional shadow plays — an early form of Chinese storytelling. Family sagas, fantastical wuxia adventures, and other emotionally driven narratives were the most popular with audiences. “Torrent” incorporated some of these familiar elements, but it stood out for its social awareness and clear political subtext.

In many ways, the film exemplifies the core traits of early left-wing art: it viewed social change from the ground up, framed systemic failures as natural disasters, and used human-centered storytelling to highlight class struggle.

Also released in 1933, “Spring Silkworms,” another collaboration between Xia Yan and Cheng Bugao and adapted from Mao Dun’s short story of the same name, was set in a farming village in China’s southeastern Jiangnan region and follows a family that pours its energy and savings into raising silkworms, only to fall into crushing debt.

It exposes the layered exploitation farmers faced, from imperialists, the Kuomintang authorities, profiteers, and predatory landlords. Shot with documentary-style realism, the film captures rural life in striking detail, and reflects the visual sophistication Chinese cinema developed during the silent era.

Meanwhile, “Twin Sisters,” also produced by the Mingxing Film Company in 1934, reflects the growing influence of leftist thought on mainstream cinema. Directed and written by Zheng Zhengqiu, one of Mingxing’s founders, the film tells the story of twin sisters separated by class and reunited years later — with both roles played by Butterfly Wu.

While steeped in the melodramatic style popular at the time, the film uses its dramatic tension to guide audiences toward a reflection on social inequality. It pushes beyond moral storytelling to examine how class shapes identity and opportunity.

As more filmmakers turned their attention to the struggles of ordinary people, Lianhua Film Company, particularly its Second Studio, helped define this shift through a series of socially engaged productions.

Whether it was Mrs. Ye, the rural toymaker played by Ruan Lingyu in “Little Toys” (1933, dir. Sun Yu), or the group of villagers-turned-road builders led by Big Brother Jin, played by Jin Yan in “The Big Road” (1935, dir. Sun Yu), these characters reflect a distinctly class-conscious worldview. Other notable works from this period include “Song of the Fishermen” (1934, dir. Cai Chusheng) and “The Goddess” (1934, dir. Wu Yonggang).

“The Goddess,” in particular, centers on the struggles of a woman forced into prostitution, portraying her efforts to protect her son and navigate a world shaped by exploitation and judgment.

The film stands out in left-wing cinema for its restrained yet emotionally powerful storytelling, anchored by a celebrated performance from Ruan Lingyu, widely regarded as one of the finest actors in the history of Chinese silent film.

Even Tianyi Film Company, the most creatively conservative of Shanghai’s “Big Three” and best known for period fantasies and supernatural tales, released a film — “Struggle” — that engaged with the growing call for social awareness, signaling just how deeply left-wing ideas had begun to shape the film industry.

Smaller studios founded during this period, such as Yihua and Diantong, were short-lived but left an outsized impact. Diantong produced “Plunder of Peach and Plum” and “Children of Troubled Times” — both of which addressed themes that resonated with young audiences, including post-graduation unemployment and the looming threat of national collapse.

These films showed a sharper ideological focus than earlier works, as the growing urgency of national crisis pushed leftist cinema toward more overt calls for resistance.

For example, in December 1935, high school and university students in Beijing staged a mass protest calling for stronger resistance against Japan’s occupation of Northeast China, an event that would become known as the December 9th Movement.

In response, members of Shanghai’s cultural community published the “National Salvation Movement Declaration” on Dec. 12, and soon after formed the Cultural Association for National Salvation.

On Jan. 27 of the following year, prominent filmmakers including Ouyang Yuqian and Cai Chusheng established the Filmmakers Association for National Salvation. Around this time, the CPC issued the call for “National Defense Literature,” which was soon followed by similar slogans for theater, poetry, and music. In turn, the Filmmakers Association adopted its own slogan: “National Defense Cinema.”

This marked a turning point in China’s cinematic history. What had begun as socially conscious filmmaking under the Left-Wing Cinema Movement now took on a sharper political edge, as narratives increasingly placed national crisis and collective resistance at their core.

Representative works from the National Defense Cinema period include Mingxing’s “Street Angels” (1937, dir. Yuan Muzhi), Lianhua’s “Blood on Wolf Mountain” (1936, dir. Fei Mu), and the “Symphony of Lianhua” anthology (1937). These films illustrate the growing technical and narrative sophistication of Chinese cinema, while staying grounded in the lives of ordinary people.

Despite their human focus, the films were unflinching in identifying concrete oppressors and aggressors. In the “Symphony of Lianhua” anthology, the segment “Nightmares in Spring Chamber” (dir. Fei Mu) fused a traditional anti-war dream sequence from Beijing opera with visions of a global fascist invader, portrayed by Hung Jingling as a Hitler-like demon.

This merging of classical Chinese performance with contemporary political allegory was virtually unprecedented in Chinese film history.

In 1937, as open war broke out between China and Japan, the Kuomintang and Communist Party formed the Second United Front. Within this new political alignment, left-wing filmmakers, who had already gained ground in the industry, shifted their focus toward serving the national war effort.

A defining example of this shift is “Eight Hundred Heroes” (1938, dir. Ying Yunwei), produced by the newly established China Film Production Studio. Completed amid the gunfire of the Battle of Wuhan, the film dramatizes the defense of Sihang Warehouse during the Battle of Shanghai — a now-legendary episode of wartime heroism.

“Espionage Agent” (1943, dir. Yuan Congmei), produced in the southwestern city of Chongqing by China Film Studio, marked a further shift from National Defense Cinema toward what became known as “Resistance War Cinema.”

Adapted from “Secret Agent of Japan,” the autobiography of Italian adventurer Amleto Vespa, the film tells the story of his double life in Japanese-occupied Northeast China following the Mukden Incident, working under duress for Japanese intelligence while secretly aiding the anti-Japanese resistance.

Written by Yang Hansheng, the film embraced genre-film elements uncommon in Chinese cinema at the time, with actors Tao Jin, Wang Hao, and He Feiguang taking on foreign roles to deliver a gripping political thriller.

During the White Terror and the early years of national crisis, left-wing cinema played a crucial role in exposing social injustice and mobilizing public sentiment. With the full outbreak of the War of Resistance, filmmaking shifted further — becoming an active part of the anti-Japanese struggle.

By the end of the war, Chinese cinema had been fundamentally reshaped. What began as a cultural response to social injustice had become a powerful tool for political resistance and national survival.

Though wartime cinema could not fully realize the revolutionary goals it once aspired to, its legacy endured, culminating in postwar masterpieces such as “Spring River Flows East” (1947), “Long Live the Mistress!” (1947), and “Myriads of Lights” (1948).

Translator: Gabriel Kwan.

(Header image: Visuals from Douban and VCG, reedited by Sixth Tone)