
A street-wise and tough orphan called Maverick is arrested for a petty theft and sent to an orphanage, but succeeds in concealing a watch he had stolen from an old shopkeeper just before his arrest. At the orphanage, he is recruited by a crooked warder for further and more serious crimes. But when two more children are admitted to the orphanage -- a boy called "Fatty" and a girl called "Little Mouse" -- he makes the first friends he has ever had. But when Maverick learns the girl is the granddaughter of the old shopkeeper he stole the watch from, and what ruin it brought to her family, he has a crisis of conscience.
Directed by Huang Zuolin, The Watch leans on a strong ensemble — Zhao Qiansun, Cai Yuanyuan, Yang Wenlong — to carry a story that balances spectacle with character.
The film landed with audiences for its craft and performances, and remains one of the most talked-about drama titles of 1949.
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Desmond Doyle is devastated when his wife abandons their family on the day after Christmas. His unemployment, and the fact that there is no woman in the house to care for the children—Evelyn, Dermot and Maurice—make it clear to the authorities this is an untenable situation. The Catholic Church and the Irish courts decide to put the Doyle children into Church-run orphanages.
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