"Bombs Over Burma" is a cheap B-movie from PRC...a tiny production company that specialized in making cheap, crappy B-movies! Usually, when I see that a movie is from PRC, I significantly lower my expectations! This film, it turns out, is no exception.When the film begins, a teacher (Anna May Wong) is alarmed because the town is being attacked by Japanese planes. However, one of the children in the class is amazingly dim....and instead of seeking shelter, this terrible little actor dances about...enjoying the Japanese carnage! Soon, he's assuming room temperature...and his death scene is unintentionally funny. Soon, the teacher is recruited for a mission to help her people...and she ends up stuck on the Burma Road with several others. Soon, it becomes apparent that one of them is in league with the Japanese...and they need to figure it out quickly.Apart from the overuse of stock footage as well as the bad acting by the child, the film is amazingly dull considering it's all about war. Watchable but honestly I had a hard time sticking with this one.

Anna May Wong (Lin) is a schoolteacher assigned on a mission by the Chinese Resistance to discover who is tipping off the Japanese for bombing raids. Targets seem to be pinpointed with expert knowledge. On a bus journey, Wong and a cast of characters are held up at a monastery where it becomes obvious that the traitor is among them.This film has a couple of memorable sequences – the beginning section at the school and the end section at the head of the convoy – that make it a better film than I had expected. There is also some humour thrown in from the naughty schoolboy. My wife and I laughed out loud when he is left in the classroom alone to throw all the schoolwork everywhere. He also has a funny moment where he knows he is wrong and gets up and puts on the naughty hat without any prompting. Very funny.Unfortunately, the sound quality is poor and this does interfere with some of the dialogue but overall, given the different subject matter, it has to score for novelty value. It's a short film and it's OK entertainment while it lasts.

Some B movies transcend, others lower themselves into the "so bad t's funny' category. But most fall into the general category of 'good B-movie" - entertaining but forgettable.This film can be enjoyed as a good B-movie, If one doesn't know much of film history, there it ends - a solid B- movie from the early '40s.But pay attention! I've watched this film several times - it's actually difficult to watch, the scene where the young boy gets wasted by Japanese machine gun fire is not fun. But the images keep pulling me along.This is a great film, for two reasons. First, director Lewis, cinematographer Cline and editor Henkel are using the film to work out knowledge of film history that more mainstream studios would not have allowed then - Sergei Eisentein's influence is all over the film.Secondly, Anna May Wong - a great actress relegated to small parts as the 'sultry Asian' - she is truly magnificent here, this performance would have won an Oscar for any other actress at a later time.Yes it's still a B-movie plot and much of the dialog has to conform to that. But so much of this is rich in construction and detail that I insist it remains a classic - unrecognized but undeniable.

Teacher in a Chinese school goes on the road to uncover axis spies in China. Ending up in a monastery she and her fellow travelers witness the bombing of a convoy of trucks and it becomes clear that someone among them is a spy. Good wartime spy drama suffers from some padding in the driving scenes and an opening sequence of teacher Anna Mae Wong and her students that ends on a bathic note with an air raid with a conclusion that was probably over done when the film was made. Early flaws aside once the film gets on the road and gets to the monastery this is a good little thriller. To be certain its formulaic at times but there are a couple of twists ( for example how the spy gets the messages out for example and the fate of the foul villain) that make this worth your time (especially on a double bill with something else).