History Film / BrokenBlossoms

[-''We may believe there are no Battling Burrows, striking the helpless with brutal whip - but do we not ourselves use the whip of unkind words and deeds? So, perhaps, Battling may even carry a message of warning.''-]

* NotSoDifferent: At the very beginning, the chief priest is counseling Cheng as he sets out on his mission of peace: "Advice for a young man's conduct in the world - word for word such as a fond parent or guardian of our own land would give." And they have the Golden Rule as a precept of Buddha.

Chen Huan (Richard Barthelmess), a young Chinese man leaves his native homeland for the shores of England, as a missionary hoping to spread the teachings of Buddha. However, London quickly chews him up and spits him back out again, and he finds himself running a shop and drifting through opium dens. However, a chance meeting with the young Lucy Burrows (Gish), the abused daughter of well known boxer Battling Burrows (Donald Crisp), leads the two of them to fall in love. But when her father finds out, their love quickly turns into tragedy.

* ActualPacifist: Originally, Chen is one. He tries to stop two sailors from fighting, quoting TheGoldenRule.

* AlmostKiss: Twice, Chen leans in to kiss Lucy, but seeing her draw back refrains.

* BreakTheCutie: Chen and Lucy.

* TheCavalry: Chen tries to be this, [[spoiler:but arrives too late.]]

* ChastityCouple: Chen's love is "a pure and holy thing". [[EnforcedTrope Enforced,]] since, even though Chen is played by a white actor in yellowface, an interracial makeout session would have been too much for most people to take in 1919 America. And Lucy is only 15, after all.
* DownerEnding: Chen [[spoiler:fails to rescue Lucy from Battling Burrows, who beats her to death. Abandoning his pacifist beliefs, Chen shoots Burrows, then commits suicide.]]
* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Chen at the end.]]
* DrowningMySorrows: Chen visits {{opium den}}s because he's depressed.

* EnterStageWindow: How Chen gets into Battling's apartment when he is trying to rescue Lucy.
* TheFilmOfTheBook: Based on the Thomas Burke short story "The Chink and the Child"

* TheGoldenRule: At the beginning of the movie, Chen quotes this as a precept of the Buddha's to two white men who are fighting.

* MayDecemberRomance: More like May-September, as Chen is still a young man.
* MightyWhiteyAndMellowYellow: [[GenderInvertedTrope Gender-inverted]], even though Chen is played by a white actor.

* TheMissionary: Chen tries to be a Buddhist missionary in England, but he fails. Nobody listens to him, and he becomes just another Chinese shopkeeper.
* MurderSuicide: [[spoiler: Chen kills Lucy’s father Battling Burrows, and then himself, having failed to prevent Burrows from ''beating his own daughter to death''.]]

* OpiumDen: Chen starts spending time in these after things go bad in London.
* StalkerWithACrush: Chen, though he's harmless.

* WideEyedIdealist: Chen starts out as one, but he's quickly broken down by the world.

* YellowPeril: Subverted, in that Chen is a decent and honorable person, and the villain of the film is the white Battling Burrows.

* KillEmAll: [[spoiler:The three main characters all die.]]

* TheRemake: The film received a British remake in 1936

* AgeLift: In the original short story, Lucy was freakin' twelve. For the film, her age has been upped to fifteen.