Asian Images in Film

[moira finnie]

Since TCM is featuring so many rarely seen Asian films and Western films depicting Asian people in celluloid, I thought that we might devote a thread to the discussion of these rarely seen movies, which will be featured every Tuesday and Thursday in June. This Tuesday, June 3, 2008 at 7:00 PM, things kick off with a documentary, The Slanted Screen (2006), examining the depictions of Asian men in film from Sessue Hayakawa in The Cheat (1915) to Harold & Kumar Go to Whitecastle (2004).

Late tonight (6/2) there are a couple of movies beginning at midnight with the silent The Peach Girl (1931) and at 2am with Nagisa Oshima's Cruel Story of Youth (1960). I've only heard of these films, but have never seen them. Are there any members who may have thoughts on these movies or any of the upcoming features throughout the month?
Here's a link to a complete list of movies & accompanying articles.

[Ollie]

I'll be recording CHEAT, PEACH and CRUEL STORY, by the way, and any others that are noted.

[charliechaplinfan]

The Peach Girl is a memorable film. If they show The Goddess too you've just got to watch that too. Those features all sound very good.

[moira finnie]

The Peach Girl was very touching, especially the end and it saddened me to learn that the leading actress, Ruan Ling-yu, committed suicide. The film seemed to be pieced together from prints in various states of decay, but the acting and story carried the day for me.

The Goddess (1934) or Shen Nu, is being shown next Sunday at midnight (really 6/9) on TCM. It also features this lovely actress in one of her last films. I look forward to it.

Here is the entire lineup of Asian Images in Film on TCM this month. I can't wait to see more of Sessue Hayakawa and Anna May Wong, two performers whose cross-cultural careers always interest me. Since I've never seen Capra's The Bitter Tea of General Yen, I suspect that I'll be pretty bleary-eyed trying to catch these late night movies too:

June 3rd Program
The Slanted Screen
The Cheat
Broken Blossoms
The Dragon Painter
Mr. Wu
The Bitter Tea of General Yen

June 5th Program
Anna May Wong - Frosted Yellow Willows: Her Life, Times & Legend
The Toll of the Sea
Old San Franciso
Piccadilly
Daughter of the Dragon
Shanghai Express

June 10th Program
Charlie Chan at the Circus
Charlie Chan in Honolulu
The Scarlet Clue
Thank You, Mr. Moto
Daughter of Shanghai

June 12th Program
The Good Earth
Dragon Seed
China Sky
First Yank into Tokyo

June 17th Program
Go For Broke!
The Teahouse of the August Moon
Walk Like a Dragon
Bad Day at Black Rock
June 19th Program
Bridge to the Sun
China Doll
Sayonara
The World of Suzie Wong

June 24th Program
The Crimson Kimono
The Mountain Road
Flower Drum Song
Enter the Dragon

June 26th Program
Rush Hour 2
The Killing Fields
The Joy Luck Club
Mr. Baseball

[charliechaplinfan]

That's a great line up. I've watched the last four on 3rd June all wonderful. The Toll of the Sea is extremely beautiful, Picadilly is Anna May's best performance (from what I've seen). the Goddess is even better than The Peach Girl.

All in my humble opinion of course

[Mr. Arkadin]

Some great films tonight. I hope everyone stays up for The Dragon Painter (1919), which I've been wanting to see for years, and my favorite Frank Capra film The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1933). Broken Blossoms (1919), The Cheat (1915), Mask of Fu Manchu (1932), and Mr. Wu (1927) have all shown before, but are excellent movies. Happy viewing.

[mahlerii]

Looking forward to this movie! Maltin rates it highly, but the Golden Turkey Awards doesn't like Marlon Brando playing an Asian. Very curious. I think they are showing it twice this year.

[Gagman 66]

Everyone,

Uhg!!! Yucky-Poo! With no prior warning, BROKEN BLOSSOMSis airing right now with a hideous new score by the accursed Alloy Orchestra! Just awful!!! Boy am I ever glad I have the Thames version on DVD-R! What a downer after a very fine Robert Israel score to THE CHEAT earlier. But why doesn't TCM run the Tinted print of this film? The Image Entertainment DVD is tinted throughout? Star Fanny Ward was a Cutie.

BROKEN BLOSSOMS is a film that should never be given a new score. It had one composed for it when first released in 1919! Both the Image and Thames versions present new recordings of that vintage score! A good print is running, better than last fall, but the Music is unconscionable!

MR. WU is an excellent film, but Maria Newman's score isn't much better, I am very sorry to say! Yipes! Oh well, you will get to see Renee Adoree, and Anna Mae Wong! To bad the final scene is missing. OLD SAN FRANCISCO is underrated, and Delores Costello is so beautiful. Thankfully, this film still has it's original Vita-phone scoring intact!

[jdb1]

I loved The Cheat, but I couldn't sit through Broken Blossoms - it was just too much pathos for one evening, and not very subtly dished up. And that score - yipes! it was ghastly. What was that, a banjo?

I could not for the life of me understand Barthelmess' expressions in those lingering closeups. Was he supposed to show suffering? Love? Inscrutability? Most of the time, he looked like Mr. Belvedere sniffing a particularly revolting TV dinner.

[mahlerii]

I have to disagree about the scores last night-but not knowing previous prints and histories, etc. these are my first times with these films! I really liked these scores! I thought they were tastefully done. But the one for "The Dragonpainter" was certainly the best. I like the use of the koto. I wonder if that's the "banjo" a previous post mentioned. I certainly would welcome hearing orignal scores when possible. In "The Cheat" and "The Dragonpainter" give me new insight on the talents of Sessue Hayakawa! He certainly deserved his fame. The violent scene was very powerful along with the end of the trial. I was interrupted by my father-in-law so I couldn't watch all of "Broken Blossoms" but I found it very interesting. It's been a long time since I saw Lillian Gish. Was the waterfront scene (with the man sawing wood) stock footage? I fell in love with "The Dragonpainter" as soon as the credits were done rolling, but it was too late to watch, so I videotaped it. Looking forward to it!

[moira finnie]

The opportunity to see The Cheat, The Dragon Painter and Mr. Wu on TCM last night was thrilling.

Sessue Hayakawa, whose sound era work in everything from Three Came Home to Swiss Family Robinson has fascinated me, was extraordinarily appealing and expressive. I really got such a kick out of the silent films broadcast last night on TCM that I didn't mind the scores a bit. Besides, there's always our friend the mute button!


Capra's The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1933) later in the evening blew me away. Clearly, we're not in Bedford Falls in this movie. The director, then said to be in love with his star, Barbara Stanwyck, never again created such a sensual feast for the eyes or soul as he produced in this tragic love story, (with a notable assist from cinematographer Joseph Walker, whose images are rapturous). In addition to the subtly played romance, carried, imho, by Nils Asther's nuanced performance, Toshia Mori was beautifully photographed and credibly beguiling. Though I've seen his silents with Garbo & Joan Crawford, I'd love to see more of Asther's films now.

I thought that it was interesting that Capra, as he did in the subtexts of his alleged "Capracorn tales" such as Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Meet John Doe, was exploring the idea that dreams and beliefs, while they may sustain a person, can also delude and destroy them. The fate of General Yen is sealed when he forgets his pragmatism by pursuing the Stanwyck character. I did have some initial difficulty accepting the basically tough Barbara Stanwyck as an idealistic, hopelessly naive Christian missionary, but her fervid dream about her exotic captor was truly erotic. Despite her unconventional looks, in this film her sensuality is allowed to luxuriate on screen as it rarely did in other films when she so often played hard-boiled, driven American dames, as she did in Baby Face, The Lady Eve, Double Indemnity and Ball of Fire. I think that the only other times I can recall the suggestion of real sensitivity and the depth of the banked fires in this actress are in some of her least known films: Forbidden (1932), (also directed by Capra), My Reputation (1942), No Man of her Own (1950) and There's Always Tomorrow (1956).

I was saddened to read that this film was a commercial failure when it was released. As I watched the story unfold I kept wondering why more of the exotic beauty seen in this film did not find its way into Capra's other Eastern sojourn: Lost Horizon? Could it be that he was consciously striving for a more commercially viable product then?

[Ann Harding]

I completely agree Moira: The bitter Tea of General Yen is one of his best films. I also prefer the precode Capra to the more idealistic one with Mr Smith & Mr Deeds. Among his early films, I also love The Miracle Woman (1931) again with Satnwyck on top form and The Platinum Blonde (1932) with a fabulous peformance from Robert Williams (what a skilled comedian he was!).
Lost Horizon is another matter. I remember seing for the first time a long time ago on a big screen. The print was dark and murky (before it was restored). At the time, I didn't enjoy it much: I had seen a whole string of Capracorn like you call it and I was a bit 'overdosed'. It's only when I re-discovered it a few years ago, that I started to look at it differently. You're right, there is a similar oriental atmosphere like in Bitter Tea in this one. A kind a mad utopia, but beautifully evocative.

[catherine]

Racial stereotypes aside,The Bitter Tea OF General Yen was stunning, what a beautiful film directed by man in love, you say? I believe it! Fabulous sets and cinematography, painted with light. Hard to understand why it wasn't a commercial success.

[charliechaplinfan]

I love The Bitter Tea of General Yen it wasn't the first Capra film I saw but it was the first Barbara Stanwyck film I ever saw so I could buy into the fact she was so charming and niave. It shows what a good actor Nils Asther, again it was the first film I'd ever seen him in. The precode Capra's do have a very different feeling to them.

The only print I have ever seen of Lost Horizon is quite a dark print, the sets are gorgeous and the feeling of this other world certainly prevails.

I like Broken Blossoms, The Dragon Painter and Mr Wu it's a shame Anna May Wong didn't get the role of Wu Nang Ping, Renee Adoree is good but they had the real thing in Hollywood and didn't use her.

I'm going to get around to watching The Cheat

[Mr. Arkadin]

Glad you enjoyed "Bitter Tea" Moira. The film is beautifully shot, wonderfully acted, and perfectly cast. Unlike some of his later films, Capra doesn't spell everything out here and leaves much unsaid for us to interpet ourselves. You also don't feel that scenes are speeded up or in a hurry to get somewhere. The film takes its time, weaving its spell and leaving us much to chew over. I wish more of his work was like this.