Remembered mostly for his magnificent performance as the Japanese officer in The Bridge over the River Kwai, few filmgoers realize that 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 (1919) was the finest of the Haworth productions. The Dragon Painter is a rare Hollywood silent-era film to feature an almost entirely Asian cast, including Japanese lead Sessue Hayakawa, who became a bona fide superstar after his turn in Cecil B. DeMille’s The Cheat. Produced by Hayakawa’s production company, outdoor scenes were shot on location in California’s spectacular Yosemite National Park. Coronado, California’s Japanese Tea Garden also served as a location!

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.

Source Information:
SFSFF RESTORATION! 35mm print from the 2023 4K digital restoration by San Francisco Silent Film Festival, Eye Filmmuseum, and George Eastman Museum. The film was photochemically restored by AFI in 1988. However, this new restoration features recently discovered additional footage located at Eye Filmmuseum in Amsterdam that greatly enhances the storyline of Ume-Ko, portrayed by Hayakawa’s real-life wife Tsuru Aoki. Restoring the film today with modern restoration tools enabled an additional level of cleaning and repair resulting in a final version that more closely resembles the original appearance.