June 3 movie: The Cheat. This month TCM's special feature is Asians in Hollywood. They kicked it off last night with all silent movies. The Cheat, from 1915, was notable for being the first big hit for both Cecil B. DeMille and Sessue Hayakawa. Hayakawa plays a Japanese ivory merchant who is accepted into polite society, until he shows his true evilness and assaults a society lady. A staggering array of ugly stereotypes at play here -- the Asian guy is an inscrutable villain who pretends to be our friend but is really a sadist out to rape our women. Interesting trivia: after protests from the Japanese government, Hayakawa's character was changed to be Burmese. The character is still clearly Japanese -- his house is full of shoji screens and he wears kimonos at home -- but the intertitles were changed to say "Burmese."
Despite the hideous plot, the movie was very well made. It included the most realistic shooting I've ever seen in a silent movie -- maybe in any movie from the golden age of Hollywood. I also have to say I'm really enjoying the commentary from the guest expert, a U of D college professor who wrote a book about Asians in Hollywood.
If you haven't read it, I really recommend Nina Revoyr's The Age of Dreaming, a novel that I think is based on Hayakawa (or some other Japanese silent film star, I guess). I really liked it--it had a lot of great historical stuff.
I'd really like to read that! TCM guest expert talked a bit about Hayakawa's career and I'd really like to learn more. I think he was the only Asian "matinee idol" silent star in Hollywood so the book must have been based on him. After Broken Blossoms they showed a movie made by Hayakawa's own production company in which he plays a tortured genius artist from Japan, and I'm really looking forward to watching it.
turns out the Durham county library has The Age of Dreaming. In fact they have five copies, four of which are checked out. Popular book! I put a hold on it.