Overview
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Release Date:
28 September 1919 (USA)
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Plot:
Tatsu is a slightly delusional painter who lives in the wilderness. He spends his days painting nothing but the image of his love...
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User Comments:
Poetic, lyrical Japanese fantasy with Sessue Hayakawa as a mad painter...
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| Scott Koué | .... | sound re-recording mixer (2005 release) |
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| Mary Lea Bandy | .... | restoration: The Museum of Modern Art (1988 restoration) |
| Michael Friend | .... | restoration: The National Center for Film and Video Preservation at The American Film Institute (1988 restoration) |
| Stephen Gong | .... | restoration: Pacific Film Archive (1988 restoration) |
| Jan-Christopher Horak | .... | restoration: The International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House (1988 restoration) |
| Bill Sloan | .... | restoration: The Museum of Modern Art (1988 restoration) |
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Crew believed to be complete
Additional Details
Runtime:
USA:50 min (2005 release) | France:53 min
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This is a lyrical, visually arresting Japanese fairy-tale about a mad artist who is under the impression that the princess of his dreams lurks in an enchanted lake which has turned her into a dragon. SESSUE HAYAKAWA is the intense young man who becomes the protégé of a painter who is looking for new talent. When the man threatens to walk away, the painter reveals that he has a daughter whom he passes off as the princess the painter is looking for.
The trick works and before you know it, the two young people fall in love. But the art of painting eludes him once he has found his lost princess and therein lies the crux of the plot. How will he get it back unless she gives up her life so that her loss will be his gain?
It's an intriguing premise and it's artfully crafted from the very opening scene with outdoor backgrounds photographed in Yosemite to give an authentic feel to the settings. The print shown on TCM is in fairly good condition considering the age and the tinted effects for moonlight give it a haunting spell.
SESSUE HAYAKAWA makes a convincing mad genius and TSURU AOKI is fine as the princess of his dreams, in real life, his wife.
Summing up: For silent film fans, well worth watching with an appropriate background score and acting that is more natural than the usual silent screen technique you might expect. The photography throughout is on the artistic side.