The Toll of the Sea is a silent film that features Anna May Wong, is also her first leading role and it was done here in the U.S. Lotus Flower is a Chinese girl living in China and she finds a man floating by the sea and she rescues him, there is a belief that when the sea gives you great joy it also comes back to take something from you. Allen and Lotus Flower fall in love and he promises her to take her back to the U.S when he goes back but his friends advise him otherwise. When the time comes for him to leave he does alone, other women that Lotus knows tell her that he will forget her as one of them has already had four husbands that left and never came back. Lotus holds onto hope as she had a baby with Allen that he does not know about. Years later Allen comes back and Lotus is happy but soon finds out he is back with his American wife, Lotus doesn't tell them at first that the baby that is running around is his but she does after. Allen's wife asks Lotus to give the baby to her and she would raise it as her own, Lotus does and tells the baby that all these time she was just taking care of him until they came back and she was only a nurse. She gives the baby up and goes back to the sea.
The theme of this movie was the submissiveness of Lotus Flower representing that of Chinese women and the way of Americans living abroad making promises to girls.
I am personally not a fan of things like this happening but understand why they do, Lotus probably thought her baby would have a better future in the U.S.
Lady from Chungking
Lady from Chungking is another movie starring Anna May Wong also as a leading lady. Anna is the leader Chinese troops and she infiltrates herself as the Japanese general's girlfriend in order to find out what his plans are and free some of her friends as well as warn them of his plans so they can be ready. At the beginning she asks for them to trust her because what was going to happen what not gonna be easy for her and it also forced her to act as the enemy. Towards the end the accomplishes what she wants them and the general finds the truth about her.
No comments:
Post a Comment