| The Hidden Pearls | |
|---|---|
 Film poster | |
| Directed by | George Melford Claude Mitchell (asst. director) |
| Written by | Beulah Marie Dix (story and screenplay) |
| Produced by | Jesse Lasky |
| Starring | Sessue Hayakawa |
| Cinematography | Paul Perry |
| Distributed by | Famous Players–Lasky Paramount Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 5 reels |
| Country | United States |
| Language | Silent (English intertitles) |
.jpg)
After withdrawing from the Japanese naval academy and attempting suicide at 18, Hayakawa attended the University of Chicago, where he studied political economics in accordance with his wealthy parents' wish that he become a banker. Upon graduating, he traveled to Los Angeles in order to board a scheduled ship back to Japan, but decided to try out acting in Little Tokyo. There, Hayakawa impressed Hollywood figures and was signed on to star in The Typhoon (1914). He made his breakthrough in The Cheat (1915), and thereafter became famous for his roles as a forbidden lover. Hayakawa was one of the highest paid stars of his time, earning $5,000 per week in 1915, and $2 million per year through his own production company from 1918 to 1921.[6][7][8] Because of rising anti-Japanese sentiment and business difficulties,[9] Hayakawa left Hollywood in 1922 and performed on Broadway and in Japan and Europe for many years before making his Hollywood comeback in Daughter of the Dragon (1931).[10]
Of his talkies, Hayakawa is probably best known for his role as Kuala, the pirate captain in Swiss Family Robinson (1960) and Colonel Saito in The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), for which he earned a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.[11] Hayakawa starred in over 80 feature films, and three of his films (The Cheat, The Dragon Painter, and The Bridge on the River Kwai) stand in the United States National Film Registry.[12][13][14]
Many of Hayakawa's films are lost. However, most of his later works, including The Bridge on the River Kwai, the Jerry Lewis comedy The Geisha Boy in which Hayakawa lampoons his role in The Bridge on the River Kwai, Swiss Family Robinson (1960 film), Tokyo Joe, and Three Came Home are available on DVD. In 1960, Hayakawa was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1645 Vine Street, in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California for his contributions to the motion picture industry.[21][65]
A musical based on Hayakawa's life, Sessue, was performed in Tokyo in 1989. In September 2007, the Museum of Modern Art held a retrospective on Hayakawa's work entitled: Sessue Hayakawa: East and West, When the Twain Met. Japanese film director Nagisa Oshima planned to create a biopic entitled Hollywood Zen based on Hayakawa's life. The script was allegedly completed and set to film in Los Angeles, but due to constant delays and the death of Oshima in 2013, the project has yet to be filmed.[66][67]
In 2020, Hayakawa's life story was told as part of PBS's documentary Asian Americans.[68]
His legacy is lasting, especially in the Asian-American community.[69][70] Media professor Karla Rae Fuller wrote in 2010: "What is even more remarkable about Hayakawa's precedent-setting career in Hollywood as an Asian American is the fact that he is virtually ignored in film history as well as star studies. [...] Furthermore, the fact that he reached such a rare level of success whereby he could form and run his own production company makes his omission from the narrative of Hollywood history even more egregious."[37]