Plantiana Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Mjeteconer Just perfect...

Gutsycurene Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

Tayloriona Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

l_rawjalaurence Let us get the obvious criticisms out of the way first: DRAGON SEED could be held up as a classic example of mimicry and/or orientalism, with the supposedly Chinese characters played by a variety of actors from different backgrounds. Led by Walter Huston as the familial patriarch, the cast also includes the Russian-born and Stanislavski- trained Akim Tamiroff; Turhan Bey, the Viennese born son of a Turkish father and Czechoslovakian mother; New England patrician Katharine Hepburn; the English-born Henry Travers, and the Irish American J. Carrol Naish as a Japanese kitchen overseer.On the other hand the film must be approached in context as a propagandist flag-waver designed to highlight the Japanese menace while emphasizing the importance of the global fight for freedom. In these terms Jack Conway and Harold S. Bucquet's epic works extremely well: the Japanese are portrayed as sadistic brutes who will stoop at nothing to achieve their aims - shooting dogs, raping and killing innocent women while relishing the thought of getting Hepburn's Jade Tan into bed. With the aid of Chinese traitor Wu Lien (Tamiroff), they set themselves up in a grand mansion and enjoy elaborate meals prepared by slave cooks, while capturing locals as slave labor.Pitted against them are the local Chinese, part of a farming community dedicated to centuries-old rituals. Nothing, it seems, can disturb the peace of their lives. When the Japanese invasion occurs, they are pitifully under-prepared to cope: Ling Tan's (Huston's) eldest son Lao Er Tan (Bey) and wife Jade (Hepburn) leave to help build a city in the hills dedicated to making weapons; while another son Lao San Tan (Hurd Hatfield) goes off to join the Chinese army. Ling Tan and his wife (Aline MacMahon) are left behind to forage for themselves, often living on scraps.While the film emphasizes the importance of rituals as the foundation of a stable society, it also looks forward to the future. Jade wants to teach her newly-born son to read, for it is only through reading that enlightenment can occur. Lao objects at first - he favors more traditional pastimes such as love-making - but as the action unfolds he understands his wife's concern. DRAGON SEED also preaches a doctrine of sexual equality: Jade spends most of the action working alongside her husband in manual labor dressed in overalls rather than the traditional attire of a rural peasant.In the end even Ling Tan comes to realize the importance of fighting for his country's future, despite his love of peace. The film ends with a climactic sequence reminiscent of MGM's GONE WITH THE WIND, as the Chinese community decamps from its long-established village to make a new home in the hills.Based on a best-selling novel by Pearl S. Buck, Marguerite Roberts's screenplay contains a few clunky lines, where the propagandist elements assume more significance than plot coherence; but the film offers the role of a lifetime to Turhan Bey, hitherto associated mostly with B-pictures and horror films for Universal. He takes the opportunity with both hands, proving as competent as Hepburn in delivering lines with élan, as well as convincing us of the character's sincerity of purpose.DRAGON SEED is certainly long - perhaps too long at 144 minutes, but it certainly fulfills its purpose, especially for those forced to fight the Japanese at first-hand during the mid-Forties.

GeoPierpont Listening to the unique dialog, methods of address, and expressions of tenderness and love made me wonder if something was lost in translation. I imagined a Chinese translation of English 'Oh Honey!' might be 'I bow to my glorious powerful master'??? Seems when life is just a bare existence and immensely challenging women are treated with great respect to carry the load as well. Who knows but reading books, especially the Bible, was an executionable offense back in the day. I certainly remember my husband complaining he wished I never went to college so he would maintain his superiority. Ha! Like that routine would have lasted very long.So now we are worried about the potential invasion of China here while our debt is so precipitous and fear incites such a divisive destabilization of our country. You wonder how people survived such cruel inhumane treatment but this is no different than our treatment of many peoples we have occupied and conquered. I would appreciate those foreign films that address the reality of the Western Devil. Let's face it, men everywhere throughout the ages are mostly responsible for this mess and if women were to take over we could likely take advantage of the situation as well. Perhaps that is why there is such a concerted effort to maintain inequality because payback is going to be a b itch!I was able to move beyond seeing Clarence the Angel in his Fu Man Chu glasses and whiskers as well as Kate Hepburn with her Yankee accent. It is not difficult to take away sympathy for all oppressed people and be thankful for the many friends, family, security and those ever vital material possessions.High recommend for the scene of a great Chinese smörgåsbord of Duck Soup and the many wild and crazy ingredients that make this film memorable.

jhkp I was crazy about this film! There were a few flaws (in my opinion), which I'll get to in a moment. But I found the film fascinating on a few levels. First, the heroine, Jade, is an amazing character. I can understand why MGM thought one of their own biggest stars, Katharine Hepburn, would excel in this role. Like Hepburn, she's a determined, headstrong, never-say-die type of character, who happens, also, to possess a good deal of feminine charm. After a minute or two, I wasn't very concerned about the fact that Hepburn was not Chinese. She was so very right, in temperament, for the role. It does take some time before the acceptance of Miss Hepburn as the character is total, but that does happen, a bit further down the line.Since this is a story of a woman character facing a brutal enemy in a war on her home turf, I'm surprised more people did not like it for that reason alone. (Since few war movies come at it from this angle - other than Gone With The Wind.) Moreover this is a very modern woman who resists the traditions of her upbringing and, because it needs to be done, leaves her village along with her husband and joins a band of resisters transporting heavy machinery across the country in the most grueling conditions - while she's pregnant! Though the film leaves it ambiguous as to whether these are Communists or Nationalists, one would be hard pressed not to be lost in admiration for their grit and guts. One day Jade decides she really needs to take a day or two off, as the baby is due, and proceeds to bear a healthy child who eventually is brought home by her in a large basket (the child having grown) she carries on her back.But this is not Jade's story, alone, it's much more of an ensemble piece about an entire family of farmers facing the invasion of the Japanese in the 1930's. Their various tribulations and joys are for the most part, grippingly and entertainingly depicted. The father and mother of this family (Jade's in-laws) are brilliantly played by Walter Huston and Aline McMahon. Turhan Bey, Henry Travers, Robert Bice, and Frances Rafferty also have major roles. A duplicitous character is played by Akim Tamiroff, his faithful wife by Jacqueline DeWit, and Travers' selfish wife by Agnes Moorehead. Hurd Hatfield plays the gentle, favored Third Son who becomes bloodthirsty and abhorrent to his parents.The film ranges very well from intimate human drama to spectacle and back again. The production design is really splendid, and the penultimate scenes of "scorched earth" are both heartbreaking and exhilarating. I marveled at what these people had to go through and how they faced it. It was truly grueling and incredible.As for Caucasian actors in Asian makeup. This is not a documentary. I believe the Chinese staged a production of Death Of A Salesman. And the Japanese had a very long-running stage production of Gone With The Wind. This particular film was a tribute by Americans to the spirit of another people, and I didn't find it inappropriate. Not that it works all the time, but overall it was carried off extremely well.As to the casting of Hepburn, someone said her New England accent was wrong for the part, but since, in real life, the characters would be speaking Chinese, not English, we're already suspending disbelief and her accent didn't bother me. She actually does an awesome job, and gets inside the role. There are few if any other white actresses of the time who would have been able to play the part at all. Hepburn not only plays it, but is excellent in it.Certain parts of the film are a little too broad, but these aren't frequent. Agnes Moorehead is very broad at first but she simmers down later and actually ends up being quite good. The marauding Japanese are played too broadly. The assault in the woods might have been even more effective if they had been played as grim and serious, rather than in a caricatured way, smiling, with clichéd comments, etc. In the book, this was a chilling scene. It's still effective in the film, but when a scene is horrific, it's not necessary to add a lot of "acting" to it. Frances Rafferty is great in the scene, by the way.Lionel Barrymore narrates the film and he has one of the most marvelous voices ever. His narration adds something significant to the film.When you have seen this motion picture you will feel like you have witnessed a truly human, emotional story, a piece of history, and it may leave you wondering about man's inhumanity to man, as it is one of the most unflinching films made during the war years. But it will give you hope and inspire you, as well.

Nic_hse I find movies like Dragon Seed hard to watch. It's a shame Hollywood thought White actors could portray Asians better than Asians. They could have at least cast Keye Luke in one of the roles. Not one asian is listed in the credits; only some white actors who regularly portrayed asians like J. Carol Naish. I didn't think any of the caucasians looked asian. Especially Hepburn. At best they looked as chinese Sidney Toler or Warner Oland from the Charlie Chan films which means not very good. If you can look past this, the movie was actually good for what was. Dragon Seed comes across as racist and contrived without real asians and that hurts it.The previous person's (Thomas Gulch) comments are silly and bigoted. For your information Mr. Gulch there were plenty of examples of movies from the thirties and forties where lily White actors portrayed Black people using Black face. Here are two examples: Pinky (1949) and Babes in Arms (1939). As for your first comment anyone with a brain knows that picketing with signs was one of the major ways Blacks got any changes to occur in this country. If the chinese did the same thing they would get similar results. Stop trying to pit Asians against Blacks because both groups along with Latinos and Indians were all discriminated against by Whites. Your comment " I guess it's todays equivalent of protraying all Egyptians as negroes". What the hell are you talking about? This is the sentence that labels you a bigot. For your information most of the Hollywood movies about Egypt have White actors in the lead and supporting roles. Ever see Cleopatra played by the very white Elizabeth Taylor and also features a White supporting cast? Or The Ten Commandments with White actors playing the Egyptians? I don't know what rock you've been hiding under for the past thirty years but the term Negroes isn't used anymore Thomas Gulch. Or is your name Archie Bunker? Hollywood wasn't concerned about offending any minority group including Blacks. Mr. Gulch, you like all bigots speak from ignorance. Try not to sound like a jackass next time.