Daughter of Shanghai

Among the most fascinating and exciting Hollywood films starring path-breaking Chinese-American actress Anna May Wong is DAUGHTER OF SHANGHAI, a revelation of the B-film’s potential to challenge dominant rules of studio-era Hollywood. In this case we find casting conventions overturned with Wong as a vengeful daughter paired with Korean-American actor Philip Ahn as a federal agent and joined together in a mission to uncover a vicious human smuggling ring victimizing Chinese immigrants. French émigré filmmaker Robert Florey was good friends with both Wong and Ahn, and worked hard to secure them sympathetic and more fully dimensional roles for non-white stars than was typical in the 1930s. Although shot on an accelerated schedule with a minimal budget, Florey’s signature stylistic flair and outspokenness is everywhere apparent in DAUGHTER OF SHANGHAI most especially in its pointed critique of the injustices regularly suffered by Asian-Americans, including the racist stereotypes the film so clearly rejects. (Haden Guest)

With PHANTOM OF CHINATOWN