Episode 14: Movie Discussion: 55 Days at Peking

55 Days at Peking is a 1963 Hollywood movie which dramatizes the events of the 1900 Boxer Rebellion/Uprising, and the siege of the foreign legations in Peking.

One of the few western movies to depict late Imperial China, it spent lavishly on elaborate sets, thousands of extras, and huge battles. While it was a commercial and critical failure, and has its problems, such as white actors playing as Chinese royalty, and a bloated and boring script, it is still worth examining.

In this Episode we discuss what the movie gets right, what it gets wrong, and how the events of 1960 impacted its depiction of 1900 China.