Gu xing xue lei (1955) Online

"Gu Xing Xue Lei" is odd because there also is an IMDb page for "Bruce Lee: An Orphan's Tragedy"--even thought it's the same movie. I have no idea why this is the case.

This film is a Chinese version of Dickens' famous story "Great Expectations" and if you've read the story, then it's pretty obvious that it inspired the film.

The movie begins with a young boy being adopted by a nice peasant. In the next scene, the boy has grown and appears about 12. When a prisoner escapes and is being sought by the police, the boy, Frank (Lee Jun Fan--known later as Bruce Lee), helps the escapee. This convict eventually realizes that the boy is his son but he doesn't tell him. Later, the guy gets a job in another city and secretly saves up to send the boy to college so that he can become a doctor-- just like he was. It turns out that the convict was set up by the evil rich guy, Mr. Toh. Oddly, however, Frank comes to believe that Toh is his benefactor-- and Toh and his wicked daughter plan on taking advantage of that.

The film is a reasonably interesting slant on the Dickens story set in contemporary China. The acting is good and the story well worth seeing--especially so you can see the young Bruce Lee. The only negative is that the film is a bit overly moralistic in places and even features a song that is meant to indoctrinate the audience in the proper virtues!

"Gu Xing Xue Lei" is odd because there also is an IMDb page for "Bruce Lee: An Orphan's Tragedy"--even thought it's the same movie. I have no idea why this is the case.

This film is a Chinese version of Dickens' famous story "Great Expectations" and if you've read the story, then it's pretty obvious that it inspired the film.

The movie begins with a young boy being adopted by a nice peasant. In the next scene, the boy has grown and appears about 12. When a prisoner escapes and is being sought by the police, the boy, Frank (Lee Jun Fan--known later as Bruce Lee), helps the escapee. This convict eventually realizes that the boy is his son but he doesn't tell him. Later, the guy gets a job in another city and secretly saves up to send the boy to college so that he can become a doctor-- just like he was. It turns out that the convict was set up by the evil rich guy, Mr. Toh. Oddly, however, Frank comes to believe that Toh is his benefactor-- and Toh and his wicked daughter plan on taking advantage of that.

The film is a reasonably interesting slant on the Dickens story set in contemporary China. The acting is good and the story well worth seeing--especially so you can see the young Bruce Lee. The only negative is that the film is a bit overly moralistic in places and even features a song that is meant to indoctrinate the audience in the proper virtues!

The filmmakers finally got it half right this time. By featuring Bruce Lee through most of the first half of the film, they made AN ORPHAN'S TRAGEDY worth sitting through- though they still didn't go that extra mile and feature him throughout the entire film. As with both THE KID and THE GUIDING LIGHT, this was a mistake. The first half of AN ORPHAN'S TRAGEDY, in which Lee is abducted by an escaped convict, is great film noir and Lee's performance is outstanding. Every emotion- mostly fear- is clearly reflected on his face. An outstanding early performance by one of film-making's pioneers. This one rates a look. It'll be interesting to see some of his later films, in which he has even more substantial roles.