Li Dandan

Based on the classic Chinese play Romance of the Western Chamber, Way Down West follows the love story between a poor scholar and wealthy woman. Unable to marry due to their social status, this changes when a bandit attacks the monastery they are staying at demanding the woman's hand. Desperate, her mother promises her hand to whomever manages to defeat the bandit.

This epic version of the Mulan tale was an early epic, shot on location in Northern China using hundreds of extras. It is the story of Hua Mulan, a young woman who takes her fathers place in the army as he is unwell. She gains glory but must eventually deal with her deception.

Xie Lijun, a young married woman, is bored by her husband Wang Qiping and attracted to Chen Mengtian, a superficially more appealing and apparently richer man. Chen tells her not to worry if her husband discovers their involvement: he will simply have a lawyer friend start divorce proceedings.

A doctor's medical studies are threatened by his infatuation with a Chinese girl. The girl returns to China, but complications ensue when she runs into him in Nanking during a Japanese bombing raid.

Hou Yao wrote, directed and starred in A Poet from the Sea (1927). It was shot in Stanley, Hong Kong. The surviving copy was only 23-minute long, but Hou Yao's romantic side was obvious through the scenic location and beautiful set-up. The love story between Poet (Hou Yao) and his lover (Lee Dan-dan) was pure and lyrical, a gem from China Sun Motion Picture Company (Shanghai) in the 1920s.