
Sessue Hayakawa
Actor · 1889 – 1973 · Nanaura, Chiba, Japan
Sessue Hayakawa (June 10, 1889 – November 23, 1973) was a Japanese and American Issei (Japanese immigrant) actor who starred in American, Japanese, French, German, and British films. Hayakawa was the first and one of the few Asian actors to find stardom in the United States as well as Europe. Between the mid-1910s and the late 1920s, he was as well known as actors Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks. He was one of the highest paid stars of his time; making $5,000 a week in 1915, and $2 million a year via his own production company during the 1920s. He starred in over 80 movies and has two films in the U.S. National Film Registry. His international stardom transitioned both silent films and talkies. Of his English-language films, Hayakawa is probably best known for his role as Colonel Saito in the film The Bridge on the River Kwai, for which he received a nomination for Academy Award Best Supporting Actor in 1957. He also appeared as the pirate leader in Disney's Swiss Family Robinson in 1960. In addition to his film acting career, Hayakawa was a theatre actor, film and theatre producer, film director, screenwriter, novelist, martial artist, and an ordained Zen master. Description above from the Wikipedia article Sessue Hayakawa, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Movies24
Movie7.8DramaHistoryThe classic story of English POWs in Burma forced to build a bridge to aid the war effort of their Japanese captors. British and American intelligence officers conspire to blow up the structure, but Col. Nicholson, the commander who supervised the bridge's construction, has acquired a sense of pride in his creation and tries to foil their plans.
The Bridge on the River Kwai
1957 · 2.4K votes
Movie6.8AdventureFamilyAfter being shipwrecked, the Robinson family is marooned on an island inhabited only by an impressive array of wildlife. In true pioneer spirit, they quickly make themselves at home but soon face a danger even greater than nature: dastardly pirates.
Swiss Family Robinson
1960 · 373 votes
Movie10.0
Movie5.7AdventureDramaA young Venezuelan idealist flees his native land to escape a revolution. Hoping to find peace, he goes to the mountains and the forests of the Amazon. There he encounters Rima, the Bird Girl, an orphan living a life of nature, who is feared by a local jungle tribe.
Green Mansions
1959 · 33 votes
Movie6.2CrimeDramaEddie Kenner is given a special assignment by the Army to get the inside story on Sandy Dawson, a former GI who has formed a gang of fellow servicemen and Japanese locals.
House of Bamboo
1955 · 75 votes
Movie6.4ComedyGilbert Wooley is a second-rate magician who is sent to entertain the troops in the pacific. During his time in Japan he becomes attached to a little orphan boy.
The Geisha Boy
1958 · 55 votes
Movie6.2DramaYukio 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.
His Birthright
1918 · 5 votes
Movie6.1DramaThrillerAn American veteran returns to Tokyo to try to pick up the threads of his pre-World War II life there, but finds himself squeezed between criminals and the authorities.
Tokyo Joe
1949 · 45 votes
MovieDramaA Japanese maiden is pursued by an unscrupulous American young man who falsely believes her to have great riches.
Alien Souls
1916
Movie6.0DramaA venal, spoiled stockbroker's wife impulsively embezzles $10,000 from the charity she chairs and desperately turns to a Burmese ivory trader to replace the stolen money.
The Cheat
1915 · 73 votes
MovieComedyAfter an accusation of a breach of diplomacy committed by his brother, Hashimura Togo bears the burden and leaves Japan in disgrace for the United States where he enters the employ of Mrs. Reynolds as a butler. Togo discovers that Mrs. Reynolds' daughter Corinne is in love with Dr. Garland but is being coerced into marrying Carlos Anthony who, having seized all of her deceased father's funds, now promises to save the family from financial ruin in return for Corinne's hand in marriage. Enlisting the aid of a reporter, Hashimura succeeds in proving Anthony's deception in time to stop the marriage, freeing Corinne to marry Garland. After a series of misadventures, his name is cleared and Hashimura returns to his sweetheart in Japan.
Hashimura Togo
1917
Movie4.3DocumentaryBefore the G, PG and R ratings system there was the Production Code, and before that there was, well, nothing. This eye-opening documentary examines the rampant sexuality of early Hollywood through movie clips and reminiscences by stars of the era. Gloria Swanson, Mary Pickford, Marlene Dietrich and others relate tales of the artistic freedom that led to the draconian Production Code, which governed content from 1934 to 1968. Diane Lane narrates.
Why Be Good?: Sexuality & Censorship in Early Cinema
2007 · 5 votes
Movie5.3CrimeDramaAt her Chinese father's bidding, a woman goes to murder an enemy and meets a Scotland Yard detective.
Daughter of the Dragon
1931 · 23 votes
Movie5.7DocumentaryA history of anti-Asian racism and yellowface in Hollywood after the 1941 Pearl Harbor attack.
Yellowface: Asian Whitewashing and Racism in Hollywood
2019 · 7 votes
Movie10.0DocumentaryWith the advent of sound, the world's leading screen idol, Douglas Fairbanks, experienced a downturn in his fortunes. His thin, reedy voice was not suited to the talkies, his marriage to Mary Pickford was on the outs, and his son, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., had replaced him as a major box-office draw. Faced with the Hollywood equivalent of a mid-life crisis, Doug called up three of his best friends - director Victor Fleming, cinematographer Henry Sharp, and production manager Charles Lewis - and took them on a six-month tour of Asia, ostensibly to shoot a travelogue for United Artists (of which Fairbanks was still a major shareholder.) Their first stop is Honolulu, followed in quick succession by Japan, China, Peking, Hong Kong, Indochina, the Philippines, Siam, and India. Fairbanks and company spend time at such noteworthy spots as the Taj Mahal, Angkor Wat, the Summer Palace and the Sun Yat-Sen Mausoleum.
Around the World in 80 Minutes with Douglas Fairbanks
1931 · 1 votes
Movie6.7WarDramaBorneo, 1941, during World War II. When the Japanese occupy the island, American writer Agnes Newton Keith is separated from her husband and imprisoned with her son in a prison camp run by the enigmatic Colonel Suga.
Three Came Home
1950 · 27 votes
Movie5.1AnimationAdventureA young Hans Christian Andersen goes in search of knowledge in the Garden of Paradise in order to make his studies easier. Each time he falls asleep, he experiences in his dreams the different characters he would later write about in fairy tales including The Little Mermaid, Thumbelina, and The Emperor's New Clothes.
The Daydreamer
1966 · 12 votes
MovieDramaA silent melodrama from the very first series of American films to use a Japanese cast. The scenes of the story are laid in Japan during the last revolution in the late '60's.
O Mimi san
1914
Movie7.0Drama
Movie8.0AdventureGoing to take up his post in Moukden, the forest engineer finds in a trainer from the cabaret "the midnight sun" a Russian princess, Armide, whom he once loved. He had met her in 1917 when the princess and her father were driven from their domain. Prince Ireniev is a gambler, a trickster, a matchmaker. Out of love for Armide, Forestier flew, and yet when he finds the two wrecks, he cannot resist. Abandoning everything, his position and his honor, he leaves with the woman of his destiny.
Le Soleil de minuit
1943 · 1 votes
Movie6.3DramaWarBased on the story about Guy Gabaldon, a Los Angeles Hispanic boy raised in the 1930s by a Japanese-American foster family. After Pearl Harbor, his foster family is interned at the Manzanar camp for Japanese Americans, while he enlists in the Marines, where his ability to speak Japanese becomes a vital asset. During the Battle of Saipan, he convinces 800 Japanese to surrender after their general commits suicide.
Hell to Eternity
1960 · 21 votes
Movie6.6DramaDenise Moret joins her husband, Pierre, in Mongolia where he works as a civil engineer. One night she loose a lot of money on the roulette and therefore is forced to borrow money from Prince Lee-Lang. The Prince immediately begins to flirt and make advances towards Denise. Advances she rejects.
Forfaiture
1937 · 8 votes
Movie10.0DramaYukio, a farm boy, and Toru, a fisherboy, live in a small Japanese village that is periodically threatened by a volcano on one side and tidal waves on the other. Yukio's younger sister Setsu follows then and dreams of becoming a pearl diver. Toru is preparing to go fishing with his father when a bell tolls and a danger flag is hung high on the hill behind the village to warn of an impending tidal wave by the village patriarch, known as Old Gentleman.
The Big Wave
1961 · 1 votes
Movie10.0CrimeSuperintendent Thomas is investigating a cabaret owner with suspicious actions.
Le Cabaret du Grand Large
1946 · 1 votes
Series3
TV6.6WesternDramaThe series initially starred veteran movie supporting actor Ward Bond as the wagon master, later replaced upon his death by John McIntire, and Robert Horton as the scout, subsequently replaced by lookalike Robert Fuller a year after Horton had decided to leave the series. The series was inspired by the 1950 film Wagon Master directed by John Ford and starring Ben Johnson, Harry Carey Jr. and Ward Bond, and harkens back to the early widescreen wagon train epic The Big Trail starring John Wayne and featuring Bond in his first major screen appearance playing a supporting role. Horton's buckskin outfit as the scout in the first season of the television series resembles Wayne's, who also played the wagon train's scout in the earlier film.
Wagon Train
1957 · 31 votes
TVDramaBased on the life of Hideyoshi Toyotomi (February 2, 1537 – September 18, 1598) a Sengoku period daimyo who unified Japan.
TV10.0DocumentaryWar & PoliticsThis five-part series traces the story of Asian Americans, spanning 150 years of immigration, racial politics, international relations, and cultural innovation. It is a timely, clear-eyed look at the vital role that Asian Americans have played in defining who we are as a nation. Their stories are a celebration of the grit and resilience of a people that reflects the experience of all Americans.
Asian Americans
2020 · 1 votes