I saw 'The Typhoon' in October 2006 at the Cinema Muto film festival in Sacile, Italy. The festival screened a print from Eastman House, restored via funding from the (U.S.) National Endowment for the Arts. The film's title is mostly symbolic, referring either to tempestuous emotions or to the implacable torrent of destiny.
As he did so many times during his Hollywood career, Japanese actor Sessue Hayakawa portrays here a Japanese character intended for Occidental audiences: a yellow man whose penchant for white women combines with a bizarre code of honour unlike our western ethos.
SPOILERS THROUGHOUT. This time round, Hayakawa portrays Tokorama (is that an authentic Japanese name?), a diplomatic staff officer at the Japanese embassy in Paris. Tokorama is having an affair with an American woman ... white, of course. Other Japanese staffers at the embassy deem this relationship improper and they try to intercede, but they succeed only in setting up an Othello-like (Othelloid?) situation, provoking Tokorama into murdering the woman.
Allegedly, Tokorama's diplomatic work is so essential to relations between Japan and France, the Japanese government cannot afford to have him prosecuted. A younger Japanese man, named Hironari, is persuaded to take the blame for Tokorama's crime ... for the honour of Japan, of course. Hironari is tried and executed, but then Tokorama conveniently dies anyway. Rather than revealing the truth after Tokorama's death, his colleagues decide that -- for the honour of Japan -- the truth must never be revealed. All of Tokorama's diaries and papers are deliberately destroyed.
Ah, so! Ah, so much of this movie seems so very pointless. After contriving a plot line in which the innocent Hironari is executed for Tokorama's act -- really a crime of passion more than a murder -- the film-makers make sure that Tokorama dies anyway, probably to satisfy American and European audiences' sense of justice.
In some of his other Hollywood films, Hayakawa managed to portray dignified and heroic figures with a true sense of honour. Here, all the evasions which are set up for his benefit -- allegedly a matter of 'honour' -- only manage to help Hayakawa's character escape responsibility for his own actions. If this were the only Sessue Hayakawa movie I'd ever seen, I wouldn't have a high opinion of him as an actor.
'The Typhoon' does have a few merits, but it's not a good introduction to Hayakawa's film career. I was intrigued to see Frank Borzage in this film, in a supporting role: Borzage became one of the most important Hollywood directors of the late silent era and the 1930s. His acting performance in this film proves that he was wise to become a director. I'll rate 'The Typhoon' just 4 points out of 10.
As he did so many times during his Hollywood career, Japanese actor Sessue Hayakawa portrays here a Japanese character intended for Occidental audiences: a yellow man whose penchant for white women combines with a bizarre code of honour unlike our western ethos.
SPOILERS THROUGHOUT. This time round, Hayakawa portrays Tokorama (is that an authentic Japanese name?), a diplomatic staff officer at the Japanese embassy in Paris. Tokorama is having an affair with an American woman ... white, of course. Other Japanese staffers at the embassy deem this relationship improper and they try to intercede, but they succeed only in setting up an Othello-like (Othelloid?) situation, provoking Tokorama into murdering the woman.
Allegedly, Tokorama's diplomatic work is so essential to relations between Japan and France, the Japanese government cannot afford to have him prosecuted. A younger Japanese man, named Hironari, is persuaded to take the blame for Tokorama's crime ... for the honour of Japan, of course. Hironari is tried and executed, but then Tokorama conveniently dies anyway. Rather than revealing the truth after Tokorama's death, his colleagues decide that -- for the honour of Japan -- the truth must never be revealed. All of Tokorama's diaries and papers are deliberately destroyed.
Ah, so! Ah, so much of this movie seems so very pointless. After contriving a plot line in which the innocent Hironari is executed for Tokorama's act -- really a crime of passion more than a murder -- the film-makers make sure that Tokorama dies anyway, probably to satisfy American and European audiences' sense of justice.
In some of his other Hollywood films, Hayakawa managed to portray dignified and heroic figures with a true sense of honour. Here, all the evasions which are set up for his benefit -- allegedly a matter of 'honour' -- only manage to help Hayakawa's character escape responsibility for his own actions. If this were the only Sessue Hayakawa movie I'd ever seen, I wouldn't have a high opinion of him as an actor.
'The Typhoon' does have a few merits, but it's not a good introduction to Hayakawa's film career. I was intrigued to see Frank Borzage in this film, in a supporting role: Borzage became one of the most important Hollywood directors of the late silent era and the 1930s. His acting performance in this film proves that he was wise to become a director. I'll rate 'The Typhoon' just 4 points out of 10.