The Dragon Painter

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Product Description

Sessue Hayakawa was one of the great stars of the silent cinema. In many films he played a dashing, romantic lead - a rarity for Asian actors in Hollywood, even today. Hayakawa became so popular and powerful that he was able to start Haworth Pictures to control his own destiny. THE DRAGON PAINTER was the finest of the Haworth productions. Beautifully acted, gorgeously shot (with Yosemite Valley filling in for the Japanese landscape), and lovingly directed, the film is an absolute marvel.

Hayakawa plays Tatsu, an artist living as a hermit in the wilds of Japan. Thought mad by the local villagers, he believes that his princess fiancée has been captured by a dragon. His obsession leads to artistic inspiration. It isn't until a surveyor comes across Tatsu in the mountains that his genius is discovered. The surveyor informs the famed artist Kano Indara about his discovery. Kano is desperate to find a male heir to teach his art, but when Tatsu meets Kano's daughter (played by Hayakawa's wife, Tsuru Aoki) and sees only his lost princess, a clash of wills brings the household to the brink of disaster.

Long considered lost, THE DRAGON PAINTER was rediscovered in a French distribution print and brought to the George Eastman House for restoration with the original tints. The film survives today as a tribute to Hayakawa's great artistry and a shining example of Asian-American cinema.

DVD Details: USA, 1919, 53 minutes, Tinted, Region 0, NTSC, Full Screen, Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0, English intertitles; Special Features: Restored by the George Eastman House Motion Picture Department; New digital master featuring original tinting; New ensemble score by composer Mark Izu; Intertitles in English; Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0; FULL FEATURE, Thomas Ince's THE WRATH OF THE GODS [(1914. 60 mins.), starring Sessue Hayakawa, Tsuru Aoki and Frank Borzage], a restored tinted print, courtesy of George Eastman House, score by Marco Lienhard; Comedy short SCREEN SNAPSHOTS (1921. 5 mins.) with Sessue Hayakawa, Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle and Charles Murray (courtesy of LarCas Productions); original script of THE WRATH OF THE GODS; stills Gallery including illustrations from Mary McNeil Fenollosa's novel and images of turn-of-the-century Japan by legendary photographer Herbert G. Ponting; PLUS in DVD-ROM format: 'How to Build Your Own Volcano': recreate the climax from WRATH OF THE GODS!; Milestone's press kit for THE DRAGON PAINTER; Mary McNeil Fenollosa's novel THE DRAGON PAINTER; 'Hollywood's First Asian Cycle', an essay by film historian Brian Taves.