been a journey. But my journey differs from the journeys of most men." – Sessue Hayakawa The “Yellow Peril” phenomenon had a profound impact on the career trajectory and legacy of Sessue Hayakawa, preventing him from being widely recognized as one of the greatest actors of the 20th century. Before the confluence of “Yellow Peril” frenzy, miscegenation laws, and implementation of the “Production Code”, the Japanese born Hayakawa was one of the most profitable leading actors, and widely regarded as
follows a battalion of British soldiers who find themselves trapped in a Japanese POW camp during WWII in 1943. The British soldieries are led by Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness) who is ordered by the commandant of the POW camp, Colonel Saito (Sessue Hayakawa), to build a railroad bridge over the Burmese river Kwai. Colonel Nicholson refuses to help build the bridge based on the fact that the Geneva Convention strictly forbids using officers as laborers. After a lengthy battle of wills between Saito
have been emasculated, with its effects most prominent in media. Asian men haven’t had enough or the best representation in the medium of film. For example, during the silent era of film, there was a lack of Asian male leads in films other than Sessue Hayakawa. In the 1930’s, Fu-Manchu films enforced Asian xenophobia along with the Yellow Peril and the Anti-Asian sentiment at the time. Being initially excluded from Hollywood films to then being portrayed as villains did not help Asian male actors in
The youngest films of the movie industry were not sheer matter of creative worth, but moderately scientific creations. At the time of the early 20th century era of making films, a cluster of scriptwriters, producers, and directors gradually transformed films into an intermediate tool for expression. A key player to the American film industry was Cecil B. Demille, an American film director and producer, known for both his renowned films in both the silent era and post silent era. DeMille is credited