Perry Kate Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

VividSimon Simply Perfect

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Jackson Booth-Millard In the first few pages of the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die there was this silent film, from director D.W. Griffith (The Birth of a Nation, Orphans of the Storm), I was certainly looking forward to seeing what I would think. Basically Cheng Huan, The Yellow Man (Richard Barthelmess) wants to spread the message of Buddha to the Anglo-Saxon lands, so he leaves his native China and travels to the gritty inner city areas of London. His mission is made much more significant when he meets and becomes devoted towards Lucy (Lillian Gish), the beautiful fifteen year old unwanted and abused daughter of boxer Battling Burrows (Donald Crisp), she finds sanctuary one evening in his home above his shop. Cheng nurses her back to health, and as they are both ignored and unwanted members of society this makes them form a close bond, but she cannot her escape her drunken and raging father who finds where they are and forces away and back home to punish her. Lucy locks herself in the closet to escape the abuse of her father, but is brought out again and beaten savagely, and when Cheng comes to help her as he cares for her so much, but it is too late, she is lying near death while Battling Burrows is drinking in the other room. In her last moments she tried to make herself smile, like she had been doing a few times previously, and then her father enters the room to face her companion, and after some staring the father lunges at him with a hatchet, but he is killed being shot various times. The end sees Cheng bringing the dead body of Lucy to his home, where he builds a shrine for Buddha and for her, and he sees nothing more to do than to take his own life by stabbing himself in the chest. Also starring Arthur Howard as Burrow's Manager, Edward Peil Sr. as Evil Eye, Norman Selby as A Prizefighter and George Beranger as The Spying One. I will confess that I did not understand everything that was going on, having no dialogue may have been the problem, LOL, but anyway, Gish gives a good performance as the tortured soul who has to force herself into any smile, the story from what I did follow was moving, and there were some interesting things to see along the way, especially the realistic and odd for its time domestic violence, I think it is certainly a worth seeing silent drama. Good!

TheExpatriate700 Broken Blossoms is arguably the best film that D. W. Griffith made. Although it is a silent film, it has an engaging story that does not suffer from a lack of dialogue. Furthermore, unlike Birth of a Nation, it has a message of racial tolerance that still resonates today.The film follows the course of a man from China who travels to the West. Perhaps because of the controversy surrounding Birth of a Nation, Griffith goes out of his way to depict the immigrant in a positive manner. Unlike the story it is based on, in which the immigrant is a typical dissipated sailor, Broken Blossoms has its protagonist come to the West in order to spread the peace and good will of Buddhism. Indeed, all the European characters, with the exception of Lillian Gish, come across as savages compared to him.Broken Blossoms benefits from several good performances. Although she is rather old for her role, Lillian Gish manages to convey a sense of innocence and vulnerability. Donald Crisp is suitably intimidating as her abusive boxer father.The film also deserves kudos for being well ahead of its time. Not only does it have a relatively progressive stance on race and immigration (keep in mind the Chinese were barred from immigrating to America at this time), but it also deals with issues of child abuse. The depictions of Crisp's attacks on Gish are genuinely harrowing, with at least one scene seeming to imply that sexual abuse is going on.For all its good points, the film has some flaws. Although Griffith specifically called for color tinting to be added to the film, it seems more a distraction then a benefit. Furthermore, the use of a non-Asian actor, Richard Barthelmess, to portray the immigrant is embarrassing in hindsight, and undermines the film's overall message of tolerance. Nevertheless, Broken Blossoms is still a film masterpiece that is well worth seeing even ninety years after it was made.

sraweber369 This is really a timeless piece of art. I don't think this would have worked as well as a talkie. It is a timeless tale beautifully told in marvelous black and white.The story of a young idealistic man coming to London to spread the word of a peaceful religion, is disillusioned that his message is not well received and takes solace in the local opium den. Meanwhile a local girl is being abused by her aetiology father. After a beating she received she barely makes is the the shop of Cheng Huan where she collapses. Cheng nurses her back to health, but a friend of the abusive father finds her and tells the father, who comes looking for her with tragic results.This is not a grandiose movie the Griffiths epochs but is a story told close up with a small cast and use of a lot of close up shots, It all works well together making a stunning and emotional tale

alexv1208 Broken Blossoms was a strikingly beautiful and enthralling film. It portrayed an intense, and somewhat dangerous love story. The music that accompanied each scene was appealing to the ear, more so than some other silent films. The colors(tints) used to expose detail in each scene were also impressive. Similar to The Gold Rush, the characters expressions and body language really displayed the feeling and story in the film, however, there were points where the acting was a little too dramatic, or lacking thereof. All in all, The film was well directed and written, it seemed as though it may have been a little provocative for its time, but I can appreciate Griffith's(the writer) willingness to write a film like this. Without those daring to go against the majority, there would be no progress in society.