The third and final one-reeler of the "Vitagraph Japonisme" program from the online edition of the 40th Pordenone Silent Film Festival, which while watching dated cinematic Orientalism is of historical interest, is something of a relief. It's easy to see too much of this sort of thing in one day. The actresses playing the two leads, a privileged upper-class girl and a poor indentured apprentice, are required to pull double duty on this one. Both obviously Caucasians, they're supposed to be Japanese characters, and the child must act more mature than her age while the women is also playing a man. It's a task that they're both woefully inadequate for, as they rely on broad theatrical gestures throughout--lots of holding their arms outstretched to convey emotion in this one.
According to Ben Brewster, for the festival screening notes, the woman may be Florence Turner, the early movie star known as the "Vitagraph Girl." Interestingly, too, the girl, Adele de Garde, played the titular boy in another of these yellow-face productions, "Ito, the Beggar Boy" (1910).
Fortunately, as opposed to "The Love of Chrysanthemum" (1910), chrysanthemums are actually flowers this time. Unfortunately, the girl is named "Morning Glory," which is another flower. It'd be like watching a series of movies based on stereotypes of Westerners where everyone is named Daisy or Rose. Anyways, "Hako' Sacrifice" has the dubious distinction of not only being racist, but also classist, as it's yet another melodrama where the poor character is needlessly sacrificed for the benefit of a rich character--never mind that this sacrifice leaves the poor person is a far worse condition than the rich one would be in if no sacrifice were committed. I doubt it's just me who thinks sacrificing one's freedom to make a child believe they miraculously won a festival contest is an extremely stupid thing to do.
According to Ben Brewster, for the festival screening notes, the woman may be Florence Turner, the early movie star known as the "Vitagraph Girl." Interestingly, too, the girl, Adele de Garde, played the titular boy in another of these yellow-face productions, "Ito, the Beggar Boy" (1910).
Fortunately, as opposed to "The Love of Chrysanthemum" (1910), chrysanthemums are actually flowers this time. Unfortunately, the girl is named "Morning Glory," which is another flower. It'd be like watching a series of movies based on stereotypes of Westerners where everyone is named Daisy or Rose. Anyways, "Hako' Sacrifice" has the dubious distinction of not only being racist, but also classist, as it's yet another melodrama where the poor character is needlessly sacrificed for the benefit of a rich character--never mind that this sacrifice leaves the poor person is a far worse condition than the rich one would be in if no sacrifice were committed. I doubt it's just me who thinks sacrificing one's freedom to make a child believe they miraculously won a festival contest is an extremely stupid thing to do.
