The Dragon Painter
A wild man and genius becomes a master painter's disciple, but loses his divine gift when he finds love.
From the archive
I've been researching newly public domain films from 1929 and earlier, along with other pictures of the era that I find interesting, so I'm uploading the best possible copies that I can find. In this silent romance drama, Tatsu, played by Sessue Hayakawa, is a painter who lives in the mountains of Hakawa, Japan. He has a strange obsession that the villagers gossip about: he believes he once had a fiancé who was turned into a dragon by the gods. This film from Hayakawa's independent studio was a minor success upon release, and since being rediscovered in 1988 has found new fans worldwide.
Why this is free to watch
The Dragon Painter (1919) is hosted by the Internet Archive as a public-domain or openly licensed work, which means its copyright has expired, lapsed, or was released by the rights holder. The uploader declared an explicit licence, linked in the source panel. Nitrate streams the file directly from the Archive and hosts no video itself.
- Director
- William Worthington
- Starring
- Sessue Hayakawa, Tsuru Aoki, Edward Peil Sr., Toyo Fujita
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