O MIMI SAN – Sessue Hayakawa, Mildred Harris
O Mimi San (1914)
Direction: Charles Miller
Screenplay: Thomas H. Ince (unconfirmed)
Cast: Sessue Hayakawa, Mildred Harris, Tsuru Aoki
O Mimi San is historically important as Japanese actor Sessue Hayakawa’s first film. In it, Hayakawa plays a prince who goes to a retreat after an attempt on his life is made; once there he falls in love with a young woman (Mildred Harris, future wife of Charles Chaplin) but then finds himself torn between love and duty as a leader of his nation. Compounding matters, an arranged marriage (with Tsuru Aoki, Hayakawa’s own future wife) awaits him.
Directed by Charles Miller and allegedly written by Thomas H. Ince (a studio head best remembered for his "mysterious" death in 1924), O Mimi San is a somewhat primitive film. That said, it offers some striking imagery. Hayakawa, for his part, does well in the role, though at this stage he hadn’t yet developed his trademark "quiet" style of screen acting that he would display the following year in his landmark vehicle The Cheat, directed by Cecil B. DeMille.
Reviewed at Cinesation 2009
© James Bazen
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Tags: Cecil B. DeMille, Charles Miller, Cinesation 2009, Classic Movies, Film Reviews, Mildred Harris, O Mimi San, Sessue Hayakawa, Silent Films, Thomas H. Ince, Tsuru Aoki
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