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The Cheat Essay

Decent Essays

Hayakawa’s career was jumpstarted by his leading role in The Cheat, the film catapulted him

to overnight stardom despite his negative portrayal of an Asian lead. This later set a precedent

for much of Hayakawa’s career where he would be branded as the mysterious, exotic and

dangerous foreign lover prior to Valentino. Having reached a level of stardom, Hayakawa used

his connections to form his own production company, Haworth productions. This gave the young

actor total control over the material he wrote, produced, directed and starred in. The Dragon

Painter is just one example of the films that he produced, however, it is also arguably the most

influential in regards to the public’s opinion of Asians. The film stands true today as a

positive representation of the Japanese community.

For the second Festival visit, I ended up catching the 1940 remake of the The Thief of

Bagdad. The special effects, set design, and art direction for this film blew me away. I was

surprised by how advanced some scenes were, specifically those involving the spider,

Genie and the flying carpet. It is amazing to think of movie magic before CGI existed when

camera angles and classic puppetry were enough to do the trick. Watching this film, I was able to

see how this production had a major influence on Disney’s Aladdin. More specifically, in the

cartoon design of the Sultan and Jaffar, the human likeness is uncanny. The thieving monkey

Abu, also serves as a nice

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