The 400 Million

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.

Director: Joris Ivens, John Fernhout

Cast: Fredric March, Morris Carnovsky, Sidney Lumet, Robert Q. Lewis, Alfred Ryder, Adelaide Bean, Lai Sek, Madame Chiang

Audience-only score — full critic data not yet in the ReelXO vault.