Anna May Wong

Anna May Wong

Wong Liu Tsong (January 3, 1905 – February 3, 1961), known professionally as Anna May Wong, was an American actress whose long career spanned both silent and sound films, television, stage, and radio. Apart from being recognized as the the first Chinese-American movie star, as well as the first Asian-American to become an international star, she was also seen as an acclaimed fashion icon due to her being the one of the early stars to embrace the flapper look. Born near the Chinatown neighborhood of Los Angeles to second-generation Chinese-American parents, Wong became infatuated with the movies at an early age and quit education to focus on beginning an acting career. After landing parts as uncredited extras in silent films, she had her first leading role in The Toll of the Sea (1922), one of the first movies made in color. Her role in Douglas Fairbanks' The Thief of Bagdad (1924) helped her achieve international stardom. Tired of being offered stereotypical supporting roles, she left Hollywood for Europe in the late 1920s, where she starred in several plays alongside notable names like Laurence Olivier. She made her final silent film in Britain titled Piccadilly (1929), which earned her wide praise. Her first talkie, The Flame of Love (1930), was recorded in three languages: English, French and German. She spent the first half of the 1930s traveling between the United States and Europe for film and stage work. Wong was featured in films of the early sound era, such as Daughter of the Dragon (1931) and Daughter of Shanghai (1937), and with Marlene Dietrich in Josef von Sternberg's Shanghai Express (1932). These films brought her more and more fame, which she used to express her staunch political views. Although she advocated for Chinese-American causes and criticized the stereotypical roles she played, Chinese press and critics continued to view her as a disgrace to the country. After experiencing the most severe disappointment of her career, when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer refused to consider her for the leading Chinese role in the film The Good Earth (1937), and instead chose a white German actress in yellowface, Wong spent the a year touring China, visiting her family's ancestral village, and studying Chinese culture. Returning to Hollywood, she starred in several B movies that portrayed Chinese-Americans in a positive light in the late-1930s. As World War II rolled around, she focused less on her film career and decided to devote her time and money in helping the Chinese against Japanese invasions. Returning to the public eye in the 1950s with several television appearances, she started her own detective mystery television show titled The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong (1951), the first U.S. television show starring an Asian-American. She was scheduled to return to film in Flower Drum Song (1961) but she died of a heart attack. For decades after her death, Wong was remembered mostly for the stereotypical roles she was given although critics have begun to reevaluate her life and career. In 2022, Wong became the first Asian-American to be depicted on American coinage when the quarters with her image on them went into circulation. In 2023, Mattel released a Barbie doll modeled on Wong in honor of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

  • Title: Anna May Wong
  • Popularity: 3.857
  • Known For: Acting
  • Birthday: 1905-01-03
  • Place of Birth: Los Angeles, California, USA
  • Homepage:
  • Also Known As: Wong Liu Tsong, Anna Mae Wong, 黃柳霜
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Anna May Wong Movies

  • 1932
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    Shanghai Express

    Shanghai Express

    6.896 1932 HD

    A beautiful temptress re-kindles an old romance while trying to escape her past during a tension-packed train journey.

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  • 2013
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    Golden Gate Girls

    Golden Gate Girls

    5.5 2013 HD

    The film traces the life and times of Esther Eng, a San Francisco native known as Hong Kong’s first “directress.” She directed 10...

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  • 1949
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    Impact

    Impact

    6.083 1949 HD

    After surviving a murder attempt, an auto magnate goes into hiding so his wife can pay for the crime.

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  • 1924
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    The Thief of Bagdad

    The Thief of Bagdad

    7.3 1924 HD

    A recalcitrant thief vies with a duplicitous Mongol ruler for the hand of a beautiful princess.

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  • 1933
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    A Study in Scarlet

    A Study in Scarlet

    5.5 1933 HD

    In London, a secret society led by lawyer Thaddeus Merrydew collects the assets of any of its deceased members and divides them among the remaining...

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  • 1927
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    Why Girls Love Sailors

    Why Girls Love Sailors

    5.867 1927 HD

    Stan is a sailor whose girl gets kidnapped by a rough sea captain. Stan dresses in drag and seduces the captain but the captain's wife catches him....

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  • 1960
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    Portrait in Black

    Portrait in Black

    5.7 1960 HD

    A pair of lovers plot to kill the woman's rich husband.

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  • 1941
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    Ellery Queen's Penthouse Mystery

    Ellery Queen's Penthouse Mystery

    5.3 1941 HD

    Chinese ventriloquist Gordon Cobb is murdered by a gang of jewel thieves. Baffled by the contradictory clues, Inspector Queen asks his son Ellery to...

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  • 1929
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    Piccadilly

    Piccadilly

    6.4 1929 HD

    A young Chinese woman, working in the kitchen at a London dance club, is given the chance to become the club's main act.

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  • 1942
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    Bombs Over Burma

    Bombs Over Burma

    5 1942 HD

    The film tells the story of Chinese guerrillas fighting for the Allied cause in Burma during Early in World War II, Chungking schoolteacher Lin Yang...

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  • 1930
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    Elstree Calling

    Elstree Calling

    5.139 1930 HD

    A series of 19 musical and comedy "vaudeville" sketches presented in the form of a live television broadcast hosted by Tommy Handley (as himself).

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  • 1923
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    The Toll of the Sea

    The Toll of the Sea

    6.2 1923 HD

    A young Chinese woman saves an American man washed up onto the shore and the two fall in love, but he resolutely returns to his life, and wife, in...

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  • 1942
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    Lady from Chungking

    Lady from Chungking

    5.2 1942 HD

    During World War II, Chinese guerrillas fight against the occupying Japanese forces. A young woman is the secret leader of the villagers, who plot to...

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  • 1937
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    Daughter of Shanghai

    Daughter of Shanghai

    5.333 1937 HD

    A Chinese-American woman tries to expose an illegal alien smuggling ring.

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  • 1931
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    Daughter of the Dragon

    Daughter of the Dragon

    5.139 1931 HD

    At her Chinese father's bidding, a woman goes to murder an enemy and meets a Scotland Yard detective.

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  • 1927
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    Mr. Wu

    Mr. Wu

    5.526 1927 HD

    When Mandarin Wu's unmarried daughter becomes pregnant by a young Englishman, he seeks vengeance.

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  • 2007
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    Anna May Wong - Frosted Yellow Willows: Her Life, Times and Legend

    Anna May Wong - Frosted Yellow Willows: Her Life, Times and Legend

    1 2007 HD

    Documentary of Anna May Wong, a Chinese-American woman who endured many hardships and heartaches to become an international star of film, stage and...

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  • 1924
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    Peter Pan

    Peter Pan

    6.988 1924 HD

    Peter Pan enters the nursery of the Darling children and, with the help of fairy dust, leads them off to Never Never Land, where they meet the...

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  • 1928
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    Across to Singapore

    Across to Singapore

    6.8 1928 HD

    While Joel and his older ship's captain brother Mark are at sea, the latter is abandoned in Singapore by devious ship's mate Finch who, upon their...

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  • 1934
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    Tiger Bay

    Tiger Bay

    6.4 1934 HD

    Michael is a young Englishman abroad who deliberately visits a tough Chinese district of Tiger Bay to test his strength. He falls in love and battles...

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  • 1928
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    Song

    Song

    8 1928 HD

    After committing a murder for his lover, Gloria, the famous painter Jack is forced to go underground. In the harbor district, he saves the poor...

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  • 1934
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    Chu Chin Chow

    Chu Chin Chow

    4.3 1934 HD

    Musical retelling of the "Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves" Arabian Nights tale.

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  • 1934
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    Limehouse Blues

    Limehouse Blues

    4.2 1934 HD

    Fresh from Chinatown in New York, Harry Young has taken over the illegal import business in the seamy Limehouse district of London, where he...

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  • 1927
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    The Devil Dancer

    The Devil Dancer

    1 1927 HD

    An English explorer disturbed by the practices of an isolated tribe attempts to rescue a native girl he has become fascinated with. THE DEVIL DANCER...

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  • 1939
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    Island of Lost Men

    Island of Lost Men

    5.7 1939 HD

    A Chinese general's daughter tracks her father to a slave-labor tyrant's jungle empire.

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  • 2019
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    Yellowface: Asian Whitewashing and Racism in Hollywood

    Yellowface: Asian Whitewashing and Racism in Hollywood

    6 2019 HD

    A history of anti-Asian racism and yellowface in Hollywood after the 1941 Pearl Harbor attack.

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  • 1932
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    Hollywood on Parade No. A-3

    Hollywood on Parade No. A-3

    1 1932 HD

    Eddie Kane wanders round the studio back-lot, opening various doors to see which stars pop out.

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  • 1934
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    Java Head

    Java Head

    6 1934 HD

    The port city of Bristol, England, in the 1800s is home to Java Head, a sailing ship line company. The owner has two sons. One, a handsome seafarer,...

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  • 1938
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    When Were You Born

    When Were You Born

    5.1 1938 HD

    A San Francisco astrologer correctly predicts a ship passenger's death and then helps the police look for the murderer.

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  • 1937
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    Hollywood Party

    Hollywood Party

    6.3 1937 HD

    Elissa Landi and Charley Chase host an East Asian themed garden tea party in Hollywood. After introducing a few Hollywood luminaries who are...

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  • 1938
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    Dangerous to Know

    Dangerous to Know

    6.5 1938 HD

    Racketeer Steve Recka, art patron and political power-maker, rules his town and Madame Lan Ying, his beautiful friend and hostess (read:mistress),...

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  • 1939
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    King of Chinatown

    King of Chinatown

    5.9 1939 HD

    A Chinese-American surgeon faces a moral dilemma after operating on the mob boss in charge of vice and protection rackets in her city's Chinatown.

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  • 1919
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    The Red Lantern

    The Red Lantern

    6 1919 HD

    Mahlee and Blanche Sackville are half-sisters, Blanche the daughter of an Englishman and his wife, Mahlee of the Englishman and his Chinese mistress....

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  • 1927
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    Old San Francisco

    Old San Francisco

    5.714 1927 HD

    In San Francisco, a villainous landowner with underworld connections seeks to steal the property of an old Spanish family.

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  • 1921
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    Outside the Law

    Outside the Law

    6.2 1921 HD

    Silent Madden and his daughter Molly have left the criminal underworld of San Francisco thanks to the wise teachings of Chang Low, a Confucian...

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  • 1932
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    Hollywood on Parade

    Hollywood on Parade

    3 1932 HD

    A short featuring many stars

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  • 1924
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    The Alaskan

    The Alaskan

    1 1924 HD

    An Alaskan defies robber barons intent on corrupting the new state.

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  • 1927
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    The Chinese Parrot

    The Chinese Parrot

    1 1927 HD

    The plot is motivated by a pearl necklace, which has caused the death and/or ruination of all its owners. The second screen appearance of detective...

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  • 1930
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    The Flame of Love

    The Flame of Love

    5.5 1930 HD

    A Chinese troupe star and the Grand Duke's adjutant fall in love, to tensions from both sides' respective comrades.

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  • 1930
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    The Road to Dishonour

    The Road to Dishonour

    1 1930 HD

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  • 1960
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    Just Joe

    Just Joe

    1 1960 HD

    A shy detergent factory employee unexpectedly finds his feet.

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  • 1925
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    His Supreme Moment

    His Supreme Moment

    1 1925 HD

    John Douglas, a down-on-his-luck engineer, takes his sweetheart, Sara Deeping, to a play starring Carla King, and he falls in love with the actress.

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  • 1920
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    Dinty

    Dinty

    5.2 1920 HD

    Dinty is a newsboy whose fight to care for his ailing mother leads him into conflicts with the other boys on the street and then with drug smugglers...

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  • 1929
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    Pavement Butterfly

    Pavement Butterfly

    6 1929 HD

    In this, her second silent film with Eichberg, Wong plays Princess Butterfly, an exotic Parisian fan dancer whose “death leap through a circle...

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  • 1923
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    Drifting

    Drifting

    6.2 1923 HD

    In Shanghai, an American girl who helps runs an opium ring meets an American agent disguised as a mining engineer. The two fall in love, and she has...

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  • 1960
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    The Savage Innocents

    The Savage Innocents

    6.8 1960 HD

    An Eskimo who has had little contact with white men goes to a trading post where he accidentally kills a missionary and finds himself being pursued...

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  • 1928
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    The Crimson City

    The Crimson City

    1 1928 HD

    Gregory Kent is on the run for a crime he did not commit.

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  • 1930
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    Flame of Love

    Flame of Love

    1 1930 HD

    French language version. A Chinese cabaret singer will do whatever it takes to save her brother when he is sentenced to death for trying to save her...

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  • 1926
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    The Desert's Toll

    The Desert's Toll

    1 1926 HD

    Frank Darwin needs to convince Muriel he didn't kill her Father, as claimed by Jasper and Oneta.

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  • 1926
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    Fifth Avenue

    Fifth Avenue

    1 1926 HD

    When her cotton crop is burned, Barbara Pelham, a beautiful southern girl, comes to New York to find work as a fashion designer, staying with Mrs....

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  • 1923
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    Mary of the Movies

    Mary of the Movies

    1 1923 HD

    Mary's kid brother needs an operation and, in order to pay for it, Mary goes to a Hollywood studio and applies for a job as an actress. Mary is given...

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  • 1921
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    Shame

    Shame

    1 1921 HD

    William Fielding, a young widower, is living in Shanghai with his little boy, David. A young Chinese woman looks after the child, and Foo Chang, a...

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  • 1921
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    Bits of Life

    Bits of Life

    1 1921 HD

    This film combines four short films under the title Bits Of Life. The Bad Samaritan is taken from a story in Popular Magazine in which the son of a...

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  • 1926
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    A Trip to Chinatown

    A Trip to Chinatown

    1 1926 HD

    A young hypochondriac who believes that he has only a week to live. His name, by the way, is Welland Strong. He decides to visit his uncle in the...

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  • 1924
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    The Fortieth Door

    The Fortieth Door

    1 1924 HD

    Aimee is a young girl betrothed to a rascal, Hamid Bey. An American archeologist, Jack Ryder, arrives to help the girl escape ending up in Bey's...

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  • 1925
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    Forty Winks

    Forty Winks

    1 1925 HD

    The Butterworth family attorney Gaspar Le Sage, and a suitor for the hand of Eleanor Butterworth, persuades a beautiful adventuress, Annabelle Wu, to...

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  • 1927
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    Driven from Home

    Driven from Home

    1 1927 HD

    A father throws his daughter out of the house when she marries a man he doesn't approve of. In addition, she also finds herself being lusted after by...

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  • 1928
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    Chinatown Charlie

    Chinatown Charlie

    1 1928 HD

    A likeable pickpocket happens to stumble onto a white slavery ring while plying his trade in Chinatown.

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  • 1927
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    Streets of Shanghai

    Streets of Shanghai

    1 1927 HD

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  • 1927
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    The Honorable Mr. Buggs

    The Honorable Mr. Buggs

    6 1927 HD

    Mr. Buggs is an insect collector. A beautiful and mysterious Asian woman (the lovely Anna May Wong) brings him a rare specimen, but she is actually a...

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  • 1926
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    The Silk Bouquet

    The Silk Bouquet

    1 1926 HD

    This obscure silent melodrama, directed by the veteran Harry J. Revier, was filmed entirely in San Francisco with an all-Asian cast that included...

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  • 1928
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    Souvenirs

    Souvenirs

    1 1928 HD

    Loves of a ship's captain on the high seas!

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  • 1924
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    Lilies of the Field

    Lilies of the Field

    1 1924 HD

    A young mother, Mildred, doesn't know that her husband Walter is cheating on her. One night she attends a party with a friend of her husband's, and...

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  • 1921
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    The First Born

    The First Born

    1 1921 HD

    Loey Tsing, the first love of Chan Wang, is sold into slavery by her father. Although Chan marries another, he still loves Loey; only the birth of a...

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  • 1923
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    Thundering Dawn

    Thundering Dawn

    1 1923 HD

    Jack Standish feels responsible for the failure of the partnership with his father and goes to the South Seas where he falls prey to alcohol, is...

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  • 1921
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    The White Mouse

    The White Mouse

    1 1921 HD

    Sergeant Blake of the Northwest Mounted Police is sent to the border to break up a ring of smugglers who are bringing illegal Chinese immigrants into...

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  • 1921
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    A Tale of Two Worlds

    A Tale of Two Worlds

    5.5 1921 HD

    A white child is adopted and raised by a Chinese citizen and brought to San Francisco, where no one surmises that she is actually not Chinese.

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  • 1960
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    Danger Man

    Danger Man

    7.382 1960 HD

    Danger Man is a British television series which was broadcast between 1960 and 1962, and again between 1964 and 1968. The series featured Patrick...

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  • 1951
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    The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong

    The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong

    1 1951 HD

    The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong was an American television series which aired on the now defunct DuMont Television Network. It starred Chinese...

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  • 1955
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    The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp

    The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp

    6.706 1955 HD

    The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp is a television western series loosely based on the life of frontier marshal Wyatt Earp. The half-hour...

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  • 1954
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    Climax!

    Climax!

    2.7 1954 HD

    Climax! is an American anthology series that aired on CBS from 1954 to 1958. The series was hosted by William Lundigan and later co-hosted by Mary...

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  • 1959
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    Adventures in Paradise

    Adventures in Paradise

    5.7 1959 HD

    Adventures in Paradise is an American television series created by James Michener which ran on ABC from 1959 until 1962, starring Gardner McKay as...

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  • 1960
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    The Barbara Stanwyck Show

    The Barbara Stanwyck Show

    6.2 1960 HD

    The Barbara Stanwyck Show is an American anthology drama television series which ran on NBC from September 1960 to September 1961. Barbara Stanwyck...

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  • 1954
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    Climax!

    Climax!

    2.7 1954 HD

    Climax! is an American anthology series that aired on CBS from 1954 to 1958. The series was hosted by William Lundigan and later co-hosted by Mary...

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  • 2020
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    Asian Americans

    Asian Americans

    1 2020 HD

    This five-part series traces the story of Asian Americans, spanning 150 years of immigration, racial politics, international relations, and cultural...

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