The 400 Million (1939)

Director: Joris Ivens

Joris Ivens’s wartime documentary of China’s resistance to the Japanese invasion, cross-cutting civilian exodus and bombing with the Nationalist state’s mobilization—schools, industry, dispersed war production, foreign relief—and guerrilla fighting. Framing an ancient nation of “400 million,” it contrasts tradition with modernization and closes on the unresolved question of victory.

Cast

Fredric March

Narration (voice)

Morris Carnovsky

Additional Voice (voice)

Sidney Lumet

Additional Voice (voice)

Robert Q. Lewis

Additional Voice (voice)

Alfred Ryder

Additional Voice (voice)

Adelaide Bean

Additional Voice (voice)

Lai Sek

Himself (archive footage)

Madame Chiang

Herself (archive footage)