Hayakawa in Japan the USA, Belgium, France, etc.

[Jasper Sharp]

The book you mention is Sessue Hayakawa: Silent Cinema and Transnational Stardom, written by list member Daisuke Miyao. It's a wonderful piece of scholarship and a fascinating read to boot. I reviewed it for Midnight Eye as while back: http://www.midnighteye.com/books/sessue-hayakawa-silent-cinema-and-transnational-stardom.shtml

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> Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2011 14:57:29 -0500
> From: mccaskem at georgetown.edu
> To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
> Subject: Hayakawa in Japan the USA, Belgium, France, etc.
> 
> I believe Hayakawa acted in a lot of US silent movies in the 19-teens and 1920s. 
> A high point was his own US Bond-raising WWI short, Banzai (1918), in which he 
> played the role of a victorious US General.
> 
> I think Hayakawa's last major prewar US film may have been "Daughter of the 
> Dragon" (1931). Then he went on to act in a number of Belgian and French films. 
> He stayed on in France under the Vichy Regime, and made some more pictures. 
> Then he made a few more in Liberated France.
> 
> He returned to US pictures in "Tokyo Joe" (1949), with Humphrey Bogart, and 
> after that was generally regarded by everyone in the US as a Japanese actor with 
> longstanding US roots, due to his much earlier US film career.
> 
> He just really just seems to have pursued his acting career to the best of his 
> ability, wherever he was, though somehow I can't help being a little reminded of 
> Peter Ustinov in "Hotel Sahara" (1951).
> 
> A person on this list has written a great, definitive book on Hayakawa, and is the 
> expert, able to supply much better information and correct errors, I'm sure.
> 
> Best Regards,
> 
> mmcc
> 
> PS
> 
> There  are unusual tales about Itami, Hayakawa, et al., trying to make an after-
> hours version of the Fanck film, aimed more at an English-speaking market, 
> with Hayakawa speaking English instead of German, etc. A Japanese blogger 
> claimed to have seen bits of this once, in some Japanese film museum, so it may 
> just be totally apocryphal..
> 
>  
 		 	   		  
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