A hostess in Shanghai invites her secondary schoolmates to a reunion. They each reminisce about their lives, with some having difficulties in marriage or career. Some led destructive lives, while others contributed to the country.
Twin girls separated at birth are reunited when the one raised in poverty becomes a servant in the household of her sister, now the pampered wife of a warlord general.
A primary school teacher rallies the citizens of a small town to resist the corruption of the local government and unite to build reinforcements against an oncoming flood.
The first Chinese sound film. It tells the story of Hong Pion (Red Peony), a singer-songwriter who, after her marriage to the depraved Faxiang Chen, not only tormented and suffered, but also endured the decline of her artistic career.
After being defeated in a fight by a local gang, local official Lu Fengyang sends his weak and sickly son Lu Xiaoqing to study with a master of the Kunlun school of martial arts. Recovered and strong, he comes upon the Red Lotus Temple, and puts up there for the night. Unable to sleep, he begins looking around the palatial temple, and discovers a room decorated with many images of Buddhist demons, and an altar to worship them. Entering to look around, he finds the entrance to a deep cave from which an oppressive, foul odor emanates. (https://web.archive.org/web/20131015062919/http://www.chinesemirror.com/index/2009/07/1928-31-burning-of-red-lotus-temple.html) This wuxia serial was adapted from a newspaper serial (Strange Tales of the Adventurer in the Wild Country) and released in 18 feature-length parts over a period of 3 years. In its entirety it would be 27 hours long. Considered lost.
