Tsuru Aoki
Also Known As: 青木鶴子, ツル・青木
Biography: From Wikipedia Tsuru Aoki (September 9, 1892 – October 18, 1961) was a popular Japanese stage and screen actress whose career was most prolific during the silent film era of the 1910s through the 1920s. Aoki may have been the first Asian actress to garner top-billing in American motion pictures.
Department: Acting
Place of Birth: Tokyo, Empire of Japan [now Tokyo, Japan]
Adult: No
Birthday: September 09, 1892
Age: 132 years old
Gender: Female
Deathday: October 18, 1961
Popularity:
Known For:
The Honorable Friend
Overview: Makino works for Kayosho, a Japanese curio dealer in America. To reward Makino's dedication, Kayosho sends for Toki-ye, a picture bride. Upon arrival, she is married to Makino in a civil ceremony. However, Kayosho intends to keep Toki-ye for himself. This angers Goto, another employee. Kayosho was betrothed to Goto's niece, Hana. One day Kayosho is found dead in a pool.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1916-08-27
Popularity:
The Dragon Painter
Overview: A wild man and genius becomes a master painter's disciple, but loses his divine gift when he finds love.
Genres: Romance Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1919-09-28
Popularity:
The Wrath of the Gods
Overview: An American sailor falls in love with a fisherman's daughter and convinces her that Jesus is more powerful than the gods who have cursed her.
Genres: Romance Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1914-06-08
Popularity:
The Last of the Line
Overview: Sioux leader Chief Gray Otter sends his son Tiah to the white man's school so that he can become a great leader. The son returns home drunk, disappointing his father. Things get worse when the son joins a group of renegades and robs a payroll wagon. The father, observing the clash from a distance, takes a side.
Genres: Western Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1914-12-24
Popularity:
The Death Mask
Overview: A Native American warrior travels to a faraway tribe to find and defend a woman that haunts his dreams.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1914-09-25
Popularity:
His Birthright
Overview: Yukio is illegal in the United States and is used by a gang of spies for their plans. Yukio must steal secret documents from an admiral. When he's submitting the documents to the gang, he realizes what he has done and claims the documents back. A struggle follows.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1918-09-08
Popularity:
The Courageous Coward
Overview: Sessue Hayakawa was making the transition from Asian villain to sympathetic hero in this picture. The plot is a combination of racial stereotypes that were common in the U.S. during the silent era and real-life situations experienced by Asians living Stateside. Hayakawa plays Suki Iota, a student who, while born and bred in America, wants a wife with traditional Japanese values. She appears in the form of Rei (Tsuru Aoki, Hayakawa's real-life wife), a singer who becomes known as the Japanese Nightingale.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1919-03-31
Popularity:
The Typhoon
Overview: Tokoramo, a Japanese diplomat on a mission to Paris, begins a love affair with Helene, a chorus girl, who subsequently rejects her American fiancé, Richard Bernisky. When the Japanese discover the affair, they try to force Tokoramo to end it, but Helene refuses to stop visiting him. One night, during one of her visits, Bernisky comes to Tokoramo's apartment and, while Helene hides, rebukes her to her lover. After Bernisky leaves, Tokoramo orders Helene out, but when he realizes his love for her, he calls her back. Suddenly, she rejects and insults him to the point that he strangles her. Tokoramo wants to confess his crime, but he must complete his work, and so his countrymen sacrifice a boy, Hironari, who pleads guilty to the murder and eventually is guillotined. In the end, Tokoramo also dies and his colleagues burn his valuable papers in order to protect Japan. -From the TCM.com Database, powered by the AFI.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1914-10-10
Popularity:
The Call of the East
Overview: While visiting Alan, who works in Tokyo, she attends a festival with her Japanese maid while wearing a Japanese kimono. There she meets the wealthy Arai Takada, who is taken by the mysterious woman. Alan has dishonored and betrayed O'Mitsu, and her brother Arai plans a terrible revenge.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1917-10-15
Popularity:
The Great Prince Shan
Overview: An assassinated Lord's daughter refuses to marry a Chinese prince but agrees to be his mistress.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1924-05-01
Popularity:
The Battle
Overview:
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 1923-12-23
Popularity:
A Tokyo Siren
Overview: Dr. John Niblock is conducting research in Japan when he is called to revive Asuti Hishuri, who has fainted during her wedding ceremony. Upon learning that Asuti is being forced into a loveless marriage, the chivalrous John offers to marry the girl in name only and take her to America where she can be free. When John and his Japanese bride arrive in San Francisco, California, the doctor's former sweetheart appears heartbroken, and Asuti realizes that she is in love with Ito, her husband's secretary.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1920-06-14
Popularity:
The Breath of the Gods
Overview: While attending college in Washington, D.C., Yuki Onda, the daughter of a Japanese samurai, meets and falls in love with Pierre Le Beau, a diplomatic attaché. At the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War, Pierre is sent to Japan as attaché to the Australian ambassador. When Yuki's father discovers his daughter's romance with a foreigner, he becomes enraged and betroths her to Prince Hagane for political reasons.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1920-07-25
Popularity:
Bonds of Honor
Overview: In this picture, Sessue Hayakawa is in a dual role, playing twin brothers. One of them, Yamashiro is serious and hardworking, while the other, Sadao, is a playboy. There is a girl, Toko-Ku, who loves them both, but really prefers the bad boy. Sadao encounters Paul Berkowitz in a gambling den and borrows far more money from him than he can ever pay back.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1919-10-04
Popularity:
Black Roses
Overview: Japanese architect Yoda is hired as groundskeeper for retired criminal Benson Burleigh.
Genres: Crime Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1921-05-22
Popularity:
O Mimi san
Overview: A silent melodrama from the very first series of American films to use a Japanese cast. The scenes of the story are laid in Japan during the last revolution in the late '60's.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1914-02-05
Popularity:
Sen Yan’s Devotion
Overview: A disguised servant of a dying Japanese prince saves articles of succession from a rival faction.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1924-07-01
Popularity:
A Heart in Pawn
Overview: Toyama wants to go to college in America but his alcoholic father won't supply the funds. He gets the money to go, however, from Sada, whom he has married in secret. But Sada has a secret of her own -- she told Toyama that she got the money from a relative, but the truth is that she has signed up to do a four-year stint as a Geisha girl.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1919-03-20
Popularity:
The Bravest Way
Overview: Tamura, a Japanese man working as a gardener in America, saves his money to marry his girlfriend, Japanese-American Nume Rogers. His friend Watana works for a Japanese businessman named Motoyoshi so that he can get enough money to bring his wife Sat-Su and their children to America. However, on the day that Sat-Su is to arrive, something happens that changes the lives of everyone concerned. A lost film.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1918-06-16
Popularity:
Night Life in Hollywood
Overview: A picture depicting the engrossing adventures of a small town youth in Hollywood and showing the intimate home life of some of the screen's greatest stars.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1922-11-15
Popularity:
Locked Lips
Overview: Upon returning home from school one day, Lotus Blossom, a Japanese orphan who lives on the island of Hilo in Hawaii and teaches at a native school, discovers Parker, nearly dead from hunger. Believing his story of a shipwreck, Lotus nurses him back to health and then, mistaking loneliness for love, agrees to marry her patient. Soon tiring of her, Parker deserts her and assumes a new identity.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1920-04-28
Popularity:
The Soul of Kura San
Overview: When his fiancée commits suicide after being used by an American artist, a Japanese art dealer seeks to get vengeance by seducing the artist's wife.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1916-10-30
Popularity:
Each to His Kind
Overview:
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1917-02-05
Popularity: