Review of Shanghai Express, directed by Josef von Sternberg

If you’re new here and stumbled on this blog through the mythical and magical powers of the Internet, or because of whatever the search engines decided was going to show up today when you Google something, welcome! My name is Ashley, and I made this blog in addition to my author/writer portfolio because I wanted to remember all of the books, shows, and movies I was coming across throughout the years.

I read and watch a lot, and I used to work as a professional film critic on the side when I was in graduate school. While I loved going to film festivals and ploughing through 500 pages of readings a week, on top of my regular fiction and nonfiction TBR list, I wasn’t remembering everything at the end of the day.

So I started writing little reviews and posts to keep an archive. It’s also pretty fun to return to a book or movie after a few years, then come to this website to see what I thought about it originally. One could call this a mind map, especially as you can literally track changes in the way we think throughout a set period of time through this kind of work.

As I suddenly became unemployed in January 2025, while waiting for my visa to come through, I decided to spend some time off and see what I could do with this blog. It was extremely unexpected and I am so grateful to have had the money to be able to do this, as most people cannot afford to take off work for this long.

Today’s blog post is dedicated to a series that I’ve been working throughout recently: revisiting old films I’ve watched over the years. I’ve been going back to old television series and movies lately for the nostalgia factor, but also seeing how my opinions have changed throughout the years (so what I was saying earlier).

This post is on Shanghai Express, which is a movie I originally watched all the way back in college. I was in a History of Hollywood class and decided to watch this as a Pre-Code movie to spring into a platform of chatting about AAPI representation in Hollywood, as this is one of those Anna May Wong movies where we see her incredible potential, but then never get an opportunity to ever see it again when the Code was instated.

Let’s get into the review! I don’t want to ramble too much in the introduction, as I know it’s not what most people came her for.

On a train to Shanghai, violence and romance breaks out among its passengers when it’s captured by warlords.

This movie actually takes place a year before its release: 1931. At this moment of time, China is in the middle of a Civil War, and World War II is about to put that on a somewhat tentative pause (we know how this ends, though, historically), and we learn the movie takes place on a train. Doc Harvey (real name: Donald) is going on a train to Shanghai, and his friends tell him they’re jealous because the infamous Shanghai Lily is going to be on the train.

She’s a well-known prostitute apparently, but as Doc comes to learn on his time on this train, the famous Shanghai Lily is actually is old lover Madeline. She wanted him to prove his love to her, then played a trick to test his loyalty. He ended up leaving her, despite her incredible amount of love for him, and to this day she still loves him.

When they meet on the train, though, she spots that he has a watch on with her picture inside it. She’s accompanied with the mysterious Hui Fei, who is a fellow prostitute with Madeline. Their dynamic is also interesting to watch throughout the course of the film. We also meet a cast of other characters, ranging from a Eurasian man (whose actor is not actually Asian, unfortunately) to an opium dealer and Christian missionary.

The train makes a stop, but then the Chinese government and its soldiers roll up and start searching the cabins. Turns out there’s a rebel on board, and he’s pretty high up on the food chain. We see the Eurasian man, Henry Chang, making a telegraph, and not long after, the train is taken over by the rebels and their warlord: Chang himself.

He wants to take a hostage so he can exchange them for his personal aide, and decides on Doc because he’s going to Shanghai to perform a big brain surgery. Chang wants Lily potentially to come to his home, but she says she won’t go with him, as she no longer wants to be a coaster. As she does that, Doc barges into the room and knocks Chang down, but Chang decides not to kill him for now.

Chang then rapes Hui Fei, and Madeline is distraught as she goes back to her room. She starts praying for Doc’s safety, especially when the aide arrives and Chang informs Madeline he wants to make Doc become blind. She agrees to go to the palace because of this, but Doc has no idea of what just happened.

Hui Fei, angered by what happened to her earlier, kills Chang right before he leaves. She goes to Doc and tells him to get Lily, who told the reverend on board what happened. He agrees not to tell Doc about it, and the train eventually reaches Shanghai.

Doc goes to buy a new watch, and Madeline finds him there. He makes one request of her: to forgive him for what he has done and for not being faithful. The two then kiss.

Overall Thoughts

This is definitely a Pre-Code movie, that’s for sure. It would be a hot minute before we got violence appearing on the screen like this—even it might be the Bonnie & Clyde that would be similar to this since the Pre-Code era. That’s an almost 40-year gap.

Regardless, this is such an iconic film. Marlene Dietrich is such an incredible actress, and her Pre-Code films are what I believe to be some of her best. Like Morocco? Such a good movie (minus the terrible depictions that do appear in it). If you haven’t seen one of her movies and are just reading this synopsis, time to get a move on that!

I also just love seeing Anna May Wong in movies where she shines. It’s unfortunate that her career ended before she could appear in movies that weren’t entirely Orientalist, but she was such a pearl in the film industry at the time. I recommend reading Sally Wen Mao’s poems on her, which appeared in several literary magazines online and in print.

All of this is to say: go watch this if you haven’t seen it already. Movies are meant to be watched, not just read about.

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