Character Analysis
(Avoiding Spoilers)
Overview... a poor peasant in a changing China. Wang Lung's life is hardly a picnic. From rebellions to diseases to famines that leave his family begging on the streets, late-Qing China is not a great place to be. Still, Wang's tenacious, and despite his struggles, he's determined to eke out a living for himself and his wife, O-Lan.
Personality... hard-working and highly ambitious, though naive. Despite being a mere country bumpkin, Wang has high hopes for his life. He wants to be rich and respected, and he'll be damned if he'll let any natural disasters stand in the way of that. Still, while Wang Lung's pride and stubbornness help him towards success, those same qualities make him dangerously susceptible to the temptations of wealth.
Get to Know him in...
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The story follows Wang Lung (Paul Muni), a humble farmer, who makes an arranged marriage to a slave, O-Lan (Luise Rainer). The couple's great struggle is to procure--and then, against withering odds, keep--a piece of land, ownership of which makes the difference between self-determination and near-slavery. The film's physical production is truly eye-filling, with location shooting in China providing exterior shots and backdrops (and blending seamlessly with the footage shot in the U.S.). No wonder the great cinematographer Karl Freund won an Oscar for the photography, which includes an awesomely staged locust plague.
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A Chinese peasant overcomes the forces of nature and the frailties of human nature to become a wealthy landowner.
