In the early days of movies, American actors of Asian descent were typically relegated to playing support roles. Portraying main characters was mostly out of the question, except in cases where they could make themselves aesthetically pleasing by taking advantage of their exotic status. There's lots of films from this time period that showcase and involve asian characters, and while they're usually shown to be very different from whites, the movies rarely say there's anything wrong with that. If anything, movies like this were intriguing to americans because they give insight into what makes asian cultures unique. I think that's why Daughter of Shanghai was such an enjoyable movie for me, in addition to its short running time of just over an hour. Not only this, its main character is Anna May Wong, who was the first american actress of Chinese ancestry to have a sizeable following. The male lead in the movie is Philip Ahn, who was Korean. The movie starts with one of the most disturbing and strange openings ever put to a motion picture. A young Anthony Quinn and some other person are flying a Lockheed single engine plane over a stretch of ocean when another plane pulls up close to theirs. The pilots exchange some words about how the government is obnoxiously trying to crack down on their "operation", and seconds later, the plane's bay doors open up to drop a bunch of immigrants into the sea. Shortly after, criminals approach a guy named Quan Lin to see if he's interested in becoming a part of their scheme which smuggles illegal aliens into the US. Lin turns them down, so the thugs try to kill him and his daughter Lan Ying (Anna May Wong). The thugs eventually kill Lan's father but she manages to get away. After escaping, Lan comes across the residence of Mary Hunt (Cecil Cunningham), who appears to be a kind old lady who has known Lan's family for many years. Little does she realize, Mary is actually the orchestrator of the immigrant smuggling scheme. Meanwhile, a federal agent named Kim Lee (Ahn) tries to uncover the truth about the operation himself. Lan makes her way to a distant island near central america, which is the main outpost for the immigrant smugglers. While there, she uses the fact that she's chinese to her advantage and gets employed as an exotic dancer. Her boss at the cantina, Hartman (Charles Bickford) says he's very important when it comes to sneaking people into america from other lands. Soon, Kim and Lan meet up on a ship because they're both trying to expose the operation, but they are captured by the same plane pilots from the beginning of the film. Intent on dumping them in the ocean (like what happened earlier), Lan and Kim hold on to a piece of the plane's cargo hold when the pilots open the bay doors, so unbeknownst to them, they're still alive. After the plane lands, Kim and Lan make their way back to Mary's house, who acts friendly towards Lan at first. She then gets thugs to subdue her and Kim after Lan finds out she's the mastermind behind all of this madness. Although he is tied up, Kim manages to wriggle his way to a phone and get the cops to show up at Mary's house. A fight ensues, and Mary is arrested. With the immigrant scheme decapitated because its leader is gone, Lan has successfully avenged her father. I thought this movie was pretty good, even if it's not that memorable. A lot of things happen in it, despite its short runtime. Apart from the fight scenes and interesting shots of what the cantina looks like, the movie is mostly notable from a modern standpoint because of its stars. As stated earlier, asian actors around this time had a difficult time finding roles in movies, unless the character they were portraying was a stereotype. This didn't become any easier during world war 2, as america, now fighting the japanese in the pacific, was very hostile to anyone who looked vaguely japanese, whether they were or not. Anna May Wong and Philip Ahn not only play likeable and interesting characters in this movie, but they also appear not to have any accents. It showed the average american moviegoer that directors were making a big mistake by deciding not to use asian actors, as the films they appeared in were often better made than the rubbish that has always made up the majority of film.
Review of Daughter of Shanghai
