The Courageous Coward

The Courageous Coward 1919

1

Sessue Hayakawa was making the transition from Asian villain to sympathetic hero in this picture. The plot is a combination of racial stereotypes that were common in the U.S. during the silent era and real-life situations experienced by Asians living Stateside. Hayakawa plays Suki Iota, a student who, while born and bred in America, wants a wife with traditional Japanese values. She appears in the form of Rei (Tsuru Aoki, Hayakawa's real-life wife), a singer who becomes known as the Japanese Nightingale.

1919

The Tong Man

The Tong Man 1919

5.70

An opium smuggler is marked for murder in this story of the Chinese Mafia.

1919

The Dragon Painter

The Dragon Painter 1919

6.30

A wild man and genius becomes a master painter's disciple, but loses his divine gift when he finds love.

1919

The Man Beneath

The Man Beneath 1919

6.00

The renown Hindu scientist, Dr. Chindi Ashutor, who has conquered plague in India, visits Scotland and falls in love with Kate Erskine, whose sister Mary is engaged to Ashutor's college friend, James Bassett. Although Kate loves Ashutor, she says marriage would make them social outcasts.

1919

An Arabian Knight

An Arabian Knight 1920

1

Japanese actor Sessue Hayakawa is cast as an ancient Egyptian donkey boy in An Arabian Knight. The humble Hayakawa rescues high-born Lillian Hall from lascivious pasha Fred Jones. All this brouhaha is actually a dream experienced by Hall.

1920

The Temple Of Dusk

The Temple Of Dusk 1918

1.00

Japanese poet Akira living in Tokyo, loves American Ruth Vale, who was placed in the care of Akira's father when her missionary parents died. Ruth returns Akira's affections until she meets Edward, but the American proves an unfaithful husband. Three years later, Ruth is gravely ill while Edward amuses himself with his new lover, Adrienne Chester, but Akira comforts the dying woman with the promise that he will protect her little daughter Blossom.

1918

Li Ting Lang

Li Ting Lang 1920

1

In a day and age when interracial marriages were considered taboo, film star Sessue Hayakawa rarely got the girl in his pictures. The issue of prejudice is broached here -- and Hayakawa still doesn't get the girl, who in this case is society girl Marion Halstead (Doris Pawn).

1920

The Power of Love

The Power of Love 1922

1

World's first 3-D feature film. The film is considered lost.

1922

A Heart in Pawn

A Heart in Pawn 1919

1

Toyama wants to go to college in America but his alcoholic father won't supply the funds. He gets the money to go, however, from Sada, whom he has married in secret. But Sada has a secret of her own -- she told Toyama that she got the money from a relative, but the truth is that she has signed up to do a four-year stint as a Geisha girl.

1919

Bonds of Honor

Bonds of Honor 1919

1

In this picture, Sessue Hayakawa is in a dual role, playing twin brothers. One of them, Yamashiro is serious and hardworking, while the other, Sadao, is a playboy. There is a girl, Toko-Ku, who loves them both, but really prefers the bad boy. Sadao encounters Paul Berkowitz in a gambling den and borrows far more money from him than he can ever pay back.

1919

His Birthright

His Birthright 1918

5.20

Yukio is illegal in the United States and is used by a gang of spies for their plans. Yukio must steal secret documents from an admiral. When he's submitting the documents to the gang, he realizes what he has done and claims the documents back. A struggle follows.

1918