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Cinéma & Cie. Film and Media Studies Journal
Daisuke Miyao, Sessue Hayakawa: Silent Cinema and Transnational Stardom, Duke University, Durham 2007 
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https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/cinemaetcie
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Selected by
2007-10-01
2023-10-09
2007-10-01
2024-02-14
Cinéma & Cie
Tom Gunning
2007/10/01
2036-461X
9
en
Daisuke Miyao, Sessue Hayakawa: Silent Cinema and Transnational Stardom, Duke University, Durham 2007 
https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/cinemaetcie/article/download/21368/18974
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                                                                                         SELECTED BY


SELECTED BY: TOM GUNNING                           Yellow Peril? Was he erotic? Was he a
                                                   Westernized Asian, or an orientalized film star?
DAISUKE MIYAO, SESSUE HAYAKAWA:                    The author articulates all of these aspects
SILENT CINEMA AND TRANSNATIONAL                    through careful reading of the films and
STARDOM, DUKE UNIVERSITY, DURHAM 2007              Hayakawa's "star text" as carried in the trade
                                                   and fan discourse.
                                                      The issue of film acting remains one of the
                                                    least developed areas of film studies. Miyao
  This is a work of great originality, the fruit ofoffers here an important probe into this still dif-
thorough and pioneering research. A truly ficult territory. He is most successful in dealing
unique attempt, not only to give a thorough with the issue of stardom, which is somewhat
account of the career of one of the first and easier to write about than acting style, since it
most unusual stars of silent cinema, but also tois always already partly verbalized, composed
approach Hayakawa's stardom from the per- of the discourse of fan and trade press. But fol-
spective of his dual identity as an ethnic lowing the pioneering work of Roberta Pearson
Japanese gaining a new identity in the world- and Lea Jacobs and Ben Brewster, Miyao also
wide stardom that the emerging film industry makes an excellent foray into a description and
created. That the author is able to interrogate analysis of Hayakawa's acting - which is after
not only Japanese sources, but the Japanese all the man's main contribution to film history.
language newspapers published in the 1910s in Hayakawa's stardom was based on his phys-
the United States makes this perhaps the most iognomy - unique and beautiful - but also on
thorough - and complex - treatment of the eth- his introduction of a complex and dialectical
nicity of a movie star ever offered by a film his- mode of performance at the very origins of nar-
torian. Miyao's placing of Hayakawa's stardom rative film based in characters. Since a large
within the context of the political and cultural        number of his early films exist, this style can be
relations between the United States and Japan        described and analyzed, rather than simply
is nothing less than masterful.                      imagined based on descriptions. Watching
   Sessue Hayakawa would be a familiar figure        these films, we find that Hayakawa was an
to people aware of silent cinema, but relatively      innovator within the early styles of acting in
few would know his career beyond its two end          silent cinema. As Miyao insightfully indicates,
points: Cecil B. DeMille's The Cheat from Hayakawa's facial expressions in his defining
1915 and David Lean's 1957 The Bridge on the          role in The Cheat do not necessarily convey the
River Kwai. But beyond these two performanc-          character's emotions. This is important. Critics,
es the very fact that early American cinema           especially the French cineastes who responded
included a Japanese actor among its major stars       so strongly to Hayakawa's style of perform-
represents a fascinating aspect of both film and      ance, praised his mask-like face, the emotional
cultural history. Miyao supplies the first thor-      and moral ambiguity he offered in a medium
ough study of Hayakawa's career. He deftly            that was striving in most cases for an exagger-
and with both specificity and insight articulates     ated clarity. Thus as an actor Hayakawa took
the central paradox of Hayakawa's stardom: At         on an emerging style of film acting - the
the very beginning of the star system in              emphasis on facial expressions encouraged by
Hollywood a Japanese star emerged whose               closer camera positions (an aspect of early film
attraction was difficult to define. Was he evil       style micely described decades ago by Janet
and cruel? Was he gentle? Was he a pioneer in         Staiger) - but he redefined it with the use of
an acting style of restraint? Was he an alien         often intense, but inscrutable expressions
monster? Was he the representation of the             (which, of course, fit into cultural clichés about
American melting pot? Was he example of the           oriental characters). Further, in place of familiar


 CINÉMA & CIE, no. 9, Fall 2007
                                                                                                   171
  TOM GUNNING

 pantomime gestures, Hayakawa used elements           both the American Japanese immigrants who
 of traditional oriental body languages (such as      had an ambivalent reaction to his screen pes-
 bows or the mie-like stances influenced by sona, and the native Japanese reception, espe-
 Kabuki). Hayakawa could be said to employ cially during his visits back to Japan and his
 what Jacobs and Brewster have called the "pic-return to act in Japanese films during the sound
 torial style of acting apparent in early silent fea- era. In Japan Hayakawa was viewed as a
 ture films based on the coded stances taken from   Westernized creature and often violently
 Western theater, but he reworked its traditional   attacked (including threats of assassination).
 meanings and introduced new techniques.            Hayakawa's career also included a strong rela-
   Miao chronicles Havakawa's varied for-           tion to France, both in the enthusiastic reaction
 tunes as a movie star and actor in detail.         to his films by critics and filmmakers such as
 Through his account we see a star emerge from      Louis Delluc and Marcel L'Herbier in the early
 a confluence of the new demands of the one-        silent era, and as a long time resident and actor
 reel narratives as developed by producer           in French cinema in the sound era (with
 Thomas Ince (who discovered and first pro-         L'Herbier actually directing him in a sound
 moted Hayakawa but did not quite make him a        remake of The Cheat).
 star) and then more particularly the emergence       Hayakawa therefore offers one of the most
 of the star system with the early feature film.    complex and extensive careers of any film
 Hayakawa offered a mode of performance and         actor, and none highlight so extraordinarily the
a personality that was at once exotic and           complex issues of international cinema and
ambiguous. His portrayal of villains rarely         stardom over many decades. He has found his
 lacked a powerful erotic charge, but, as Miyao     perfect scholar in Miyao. In an era in which
 also shows, Hayakawa attempted to channel an       representation of race and ethnicity has
 American fascination with not only the exotic      become a major theme in cinema and cultural
 generally but with the specifics of Japanese       studies, an investigation of a figure like
 style into more positive characters. However,      Hayakawa becomes an obviously rich topic
 as much as Hayakawa redefined his character        (and several scholars have contemplated
 in terms of more positive views of the Japanese    undertaking it. We are fortunate that it has
 immigrant or traditional native Japanese cul- been accomplished by a scholar as careful and
 ture, the threat of miscegenation and the under-thorough as Miyao, who is able to consult both
 lying racism of American culture recurrently American and Japanese sources. This gives his
 threatened its positive reception. Hayakawa study a complexity no previous scholar even
attempted, like many emerging stars of the era,     contemplated, exploring the reception of
to maintain control over both his image and the     Hayakawa in both American and Japanese
production of his films, through creation of a      contexts. Specialists in silent cinema will find
production company that he at first dominated,      this an important book, as will researchers
but gradually lost control of. Miyao carefully      dealing with film stardom generally. Cultural
chronicles the vicissitudes of Hayakawa's star      historians dealing with ethnicity, and especial-
persona with the American public. But, besides      ly those dealing with Japanese and American
describing Hayakawa's popularity with the           relations, will find it an unexpected treasure
mass of American viewers, Miyao uniquely            trove of information. It is an important debut
details the actor's reception by the Japanese,      book for a fine scholar.




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