Watch Arrest in Chinatown, San Francisco, Cal. For Free

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

hyped garbage

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Blistering performances.

. . . Thomas Alva Edison, a well-known proponent of the American Melting Pot, Open Borders, Humanitarian Immigration Policies, and Racial Diversity, released this blazing expose, to spearhead the Asian Lives Count Movement. As rogue Caucasian members of the San Francisco P.D. drag away a man who could be a recent arrival from The Orient (or, just as easily, a Seventh Generation descendant of an early Pacific Coast Explorer), about a dozen activists from the Asian Lives Count Movement trail the Racist Posse, fearlessly recording the abuse for Posterity as one of Edison's minions captures the shameful debacle from the sidewalk. The detainee is further humiliated by being placed into a HORSE-DRAWN contraption, so that he's totally exposed while SLOWLY being drawn through the street like some member of the French Royal Family during their Reign of Terror in the 1700s. No doubt it was films like this one (ARREST IN CHINATOWN) that helped clear the obstacles for Asian-Americans to reach the pinnacle of American Success and Respect that they enjoy Today. (A Small Disclaimer: I viewed this live action short on a computer screen, so for some of the tinier details I may have made one or two educated guesses.)

Lucky for him, back then movies weren't distributed on a large scale like today, so his face may be forgotten when he commits further crimes after his release or leads a life as an upright American citizen hopefully. In any case this one-minute short film shows us exactly what the title says. An offender is lead away by the police and he's giving a bit of resistance even here. Maybe he thinks he's done nothing wrong. Behind the officers a large crowd of people follows and makes sure he is taken away. Maybe he really committed some major crime that he caused so much uproar? We'll probably never find out. The possibly most interesting thing about this short film is the complete cut halfway into the movie to another position as we see the police and the offender driving away. Not really interesting short film though taking everything into consideration. Too bad White didn't film the crime or the actual arrest.

Arrest in Chinatown, San Francisco, CA (1887) *** (out of 4) Edison short pretty much shows us what the title says in 24-seconds. We see a group of people standing around watching something and then a few seconds later we see the police pulling away with a Chinese man arrested. From what I read at The Library of Congress, not too much is known about this film so you could think that a cameraman just saw what was going on, filmed it and then Edison released it into theaters. The LOC suggest that perhaps this man was doing illegal immigration and perhaps that is what led to his arrest. Either way, there's nothing too ground breaking here but if you're a fan of early cinema then it remains interesting.