Daughter of the Dragon

Anna May Wong and Sessue Hayakawa — two of Hollywood's most talented and most constrained Asian actors — share the screen in this Fu Manchu sequel, and their combined star power almost transcends the lurid material. Wong plays Princess Ling Moy, daughter of the villainous Fu Manchu, tasked with carrying out her father's vendetta against a British family. The role is exactly the kind of dragon-lady stereotype Wong spent her career fighting against, and the film's Orientalist trappings are deeply retrograde. But Wong and Hayakawa invest their performances with such intelligence and charisma that you can see the better film struggling to get out. An essential viewing not for its dated politics, but for watching two extraordinary performers refuse to be diminished by their material.