Abnégation

Dragon Painter, The (1919)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

At times haunting, at times romantic, this once thought lost silent film turned out to be one of the crowning gems of its era. The film tells the story of Tatsu (Sessue Hayakawa), a madman who has become known as The Dragon Painter. Tatsu believes that a thousand years earlier his one and only love had her spirit taken away by a dragon so all he paints in dragons hoping that one day she will return to him. A master painter (Edward Peil, Sr.) living in Tokyo soon learns of Tatsu's great paintings and brings him in telling Tatsu that he knows where the spirit of his love is. The painter offers up his daughter (Toyo Fujita) in return that Tatsu make great paintings but after Tatsu gets his love back he doesn't feel the need to paint anymore. This film was thought lost for decades until a print turned up in 1977 and thankfully one did because this is a rare case where a lost film turns out to be well worth being found. The movie runs just over 50-minutes and it contains some very strong scenes as well as some great performances. The film was done by Hayakawa's own studio so needless to say the budget isn't the biggest but this works well for the film as it creates a tight and unique atmosphere and really captures the culture of Japan. The set design is also very well done and the new music score serves the film very well. For those of you who only know Hayakawa from his role in The Bridge on the River Kwai then you should certainly seek this film out. The Japanese born actor gives a very strong performance here and his scenes as the madman are right on the mark as are the scenes with him stricken with grief. Peil and Fujita also deliver fine performances. It's also nice seeing a film from this period that show a foreign man doing something other than being a gangster or villain.

The film produced by Hayakawa's own production company Hayworth indeed has a different "look" from the contemporaneous Orientalist productions of Hollywood. Although it does fulfill the almost obligatory casting of Caucasian actors playing yellowface, Edward Peil Sr.'s Japanese art master Kano Indara doesn't seem at all attempt to be "authentic" oriental, not to mention to compete with his Japanese/Asian co-actors as one would find with Warner Oland in films such as The Daughter of Dragon and Shanghai Express. Sessue Hayakawa and Tsuru Aoki are without the doubt the focus of this film. The scenic design also avoids the extravagant Orientalist/art deco ornaments popular at that time, opting for a simple interior design, while lavishing on the natural landscapes framed as quintessential Japanese (despite the fact that they were shot in California). Moreover, the Japaneseness of this film has something to do with the occasional violation of the classical Hollywood editing rules; for instance, the eye-line match in the scene in which the surveyor finds out the talent of the dragon painter by the waterfall is completely off, creating a sense of spatial disorientation that predates Ozu.

As a sidenote, Hayakawa's madman also foresees the famous acting of Toshiro Mifune.

Seeing a young Sessue Hayakawa (well, actually 33 years old) is the highlight of this film, as he really inhabits the character of this youthful and uncouth artist, and has striking good looks besides. He's paired with his real-life wife (Tsuru Aoki), the film was produced by the company he co-founded with director William Worthington, and a part of his aim was to break down racial stereotypes, so there is something personal and intimate about seeing it over a century later. The film touches on the interesting idea that an artist must be longing for something in order to feel inspiration, and if his desires are fulfilled it may kill the creative process, but it was a little simple and drawn out, even in the 53 minute run time. You can read what happens as a ruse or as a magical bit of mythology, but I favor the latter interpretation, as that bookends the "enchanted princess whom the spirits took from him" from the beginning rather nicely. As a little extra bonus, you may recognize Yosemite Valley substituting for a mountainous region of Japan, and the film has some pretty good cinematography in it as well. Overall the film isn't outstanding but it has a certain loveliness to it, and it's worth checking out.

I had never heard of The Dragon Painter and decided to watch it. I'm glad I did. It is a beautiful film, almost devoid of the clichés of silent-era acting (broad mannerisms, excessive mugging, etc) that make many silent films so comical to audiences today.

The lead actor is Sessue Hayakawa, who many film fans may remember as the Pirate Captain in the Disney version of Swiss Family Robinson or from Bridge on the River Kwai. Here he delivers a great performance as a "mad" artist that is at times comical and tragic.

The cinematography and art direction are wonderful, as is the soundtrack.

If I have one complaint it is that the inter-titles play too long on the screen. But this is a minor quibble.

A simple tale of madness, loss, redemption and ultimately love, I can't recommend this film highly enough.

"The Dragon Painter" is an interesting silent film; it's about a painter, his art and, of course for the drama, his love story, which I've found to be a promising setup in various films. Among other silent films, Carl Dreyer's "Michael" (1924) and some of the films by Yevgeni Bauer, mostly "The Dying Swan" (1917), come to mind as other worthwhile explorations of these themes. In being art about art, it naturally lends itself to self-reflexivity. In "The Dragon Painter", we don't actually get to see much of the artist's paintings--besides a couple sketches he tosses over a waterfall and a painting at the exhibition--but that's probably for the best, rather than having imitations shown off instead of art. The art in this film is in the photography of landscapes and nature (waterfalls, horizons overlooking canyons, lush gardens and such), which is pictorially beautiful (inexplicably, this film's cinematographer Frank D. Williams learned his craft at Keystone of all places). For one scene, however, a moonlit sky is actually a painted backdrop, which I think nicely reinforces the narrative's self-reflexivity.

In addition to the art about art, Sessue Hayakawa gives an outstanding performance as the painter. I haven't seen him so lively before, although I've only been privileged to see a couple others of his silent films thus far and "The Bridge on the River Kwai" (1957). He was great in "The Cheat" (1915), but he displayed a different sort of acting, characterization there. Hayakawa in "The Dragon Painter" seems closer to Toshirô Mifune, of Akira Kurosawa's films, than to the Hayakawa of "The Cheat" or "The Bridge on the River Kwai". It's appropriate and displays his versatility well. Sessue's real-life wife, Tsuru Aoki, who steals the other film, "The Wrath of the Gods" (1914) available on the same DVD away from him, is also good. Her role in this one could've been rather thankless, but she makes the most of it. On the other hand, this isn't a perfect gem; too many intertitles and some overly quick shot successions seem to be it's most significant weaknesses. Regardless, I'd recommend this for being one of the better films of its time--or, rather, for being a good movie.