Seeing baby faced Anna May Wong, just one year out of high school at 17 and in her breakout role, is enough to make this film worth checking out. The film was shot in two-color Technicolor (red and green), which I found added to the images, rather than awkwardly detracting from them as I feared it might. Unfortunately, the plot is typical of the period, a variation of the popular Madame Butterfly story of 1898, and it's pretty maddening. At least here it wasn't a Caucasian actor in yellowface, ala Mary Pickford in the role of Butterfly in 1915.
While we're made to feel sympathy for the young Asian woman who has been impregnated by a visiting American (well, one who mysteriously just washed up in the sea), the dominant perspective is clearly that of the white male. The Caucasian wife easily forgives his indiscretions, the sexually compliant Asian lover simply gives up her baby, and all is right with the world, right? Of course, she's also doomed, because that's the message here - East is East and West is West, and should the races mix, terrible things will happen, and invariably to the Asian woman. Aside from the broken English in the intertitles, we also see the guy's friends warn him about the relationship, pointing first to a fashionable Caucasian lady and then to an inelegant Chinese woman, so there is clearly a view of racial superiority here. Wong's character, the Butterfly of the story, is just a disposable fling.
Anna May Wong is so compelling though, bumping up my review score. She's graceful and does a very good job of bringing forth the emotions of her character. She's also quite beautiful in her various outfits, and I especially liked her in the Victorian dress, even if it symbolizes her willingness to give up her culture. The New York Times praised her performance, saying she had succeeded in a difficult role, and that "she should be seen again and again on the screen" - not something you usually see written about a minority actor at the time. Pickford and Fairbanks were at the film's premier which helped her land her role in 'The Thief of Bagdad' a couple years later, so this was truly a turning point in her life. To think it happened while she was living at home and keeping the books for her father's laundry is a little mind-boggling. Enjoy this one for her radiance, and forget the story.
While we're made to feel sympathy for the young Asian woman who has been impregnated by a visiting American (well, one who mysteriously just washed up in the sea), the dominant perspective is clearly that of the white male. The Caucasian wife easily forgives his indiscretions, the sexually compliant Asian lover simply gives up her baby, and all is right with the world, right? Of course, she's also doomed, because that's the message here - East is East and West is West, and should the races mix, terrible things will happen, and invariably to the Asian woman. Aside from the broken English in the intertitles, we also see the guy's friends warn him about the relationship, pointing first to a fashionable Caucasian lady and then to an inelegant Chinese woman, so there is clearly a view of racial superiority here. Wong's character, the Butterfly of the story, is just a disposable fling.
Anna May Wong is so compelling though, bumping up my review score. She's graceful and does a very good job of bringing forth the emotions of her character. She's also quite beautiful in her various outfits, and I especially liked her in the Victorian dress, even if it symbolizes her willingness to give up her culture. The New York Times praised her performance, saying she had succeeded in a difficult role, and that "she should be seen again and again on the screen" - not something you usually see written about a minority actor at the time. Pickford and Fairbanks were at the film's premier which helped her land her role in 'The Thief of Bagdad' a couple years later, so this was truly a turning point in her life. To think it happened while she was living at home and keeping the books for her father's laundry is a little mind-boggling. Enjoy this one for her radiance, and forget the story.