Hako's Sacrifice

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Short

Drama

Poor Hako, a Japanese boy, is sold into bondage to a cruel fisherman who makes his life a burden and even more wretched than his physical deformities and weakness. Morning Glory, a little Ja... Read allPoor Hako, a Japanese boy, is sold into bondage to a cruel fisherman who makes his life a burden and even more wretched than his physical deformities and weakness. Morning Glory, a little Japanese girl, in passing the fisherman's hut with her mother, sees Hako, looks into the sad... Read allPoor Hako, a Japanese boy, is sold into bondage to a cruel fisherman who makes his life a burden and even more wretched than his physical deformities and weakness. Morning Glory, a little Japanese girl, in passing the fisherman's hut with her mother, sees Hako, looks into the sad face and feels sorry for him. Her father is a florist, and when he gives his daughter a c... Read all

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Poor Hako, a Japanese boy, is sold into bondage to a cruel fisherman who makes his life a burden and even more wretched than his physical deformities and weakness. Morning Glory, a little Japanese girl, in passing the fisherman's hut with her mother, sees Hako, looks into the sad face and feels sorry for him. Her father is a florist, and when he gives his daughter a couple of chrysanthemum plants, she gives one of them to Hako, who stealthily plants it where it cannot be seen by his cruel master, at night watering and cultivating it as the only bright thing in his unhappy life, and his sole possession. Morning Glory's father fails in business and is put in jail for debt, to the great delight of Keiki, his enemy and competitor in business. The Prince of the province offers a reward of five hundred yen to the child who brings the finest specimen of chrysanthemum on Festival Day. Hako is delighted, and hopes to win the prize and his freedom at the same time. Morning Glory rejoices in the thought that she will win the prize and her father's release from prison. Keiki, in passing Morning Glory's garden, sees her watching her cherished plant and its remarkable flower. He waits until nightfall, and, stealing into the garden, destroys the precious plant. The little girl, on discovering her loss, is inconsolable. Hako happens to be passing her house at this moment and resolves to sacrifice his chrysanthemum to the child's purpose, for he loves the girl who has always been so kind and good to him. At night Hako removes his plant and transplants it in Morning Glory's garden in place of the one she lost. The child goes into the garden the next morning. Her joy is unbounded. She thinks the gods have answered her prayer. The Festival Day arrives and Morning Glory wins the prize; her father is released from prison and Hako's sacrifice has won the great happiness and joy which is only the compensation gained by those who make it. —Moving Picture World synopsis

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- Short
- Drama
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Classism and Orientalism

The third and final one-reeler of the "Vitagraph Japonisme" program from the online edition of the 40th Pordenone Silent Film Festival, which while watching dated cinematic Orientalism is of historical interest, is something of a relief. It's easy to see too much of this sort of thing in one day. The actresses playing the two leads, a privileged upper-class girl and a poor indentured apprentice, are required to pull double duty on this one. Both obviously Caucasians, they're supposed to be Japanese characters, and the child must act more mature than her age while the women is also playing a man. It's a task that they're both woefully inadequate for, as they rely on broad theatrical gestures throughout--lots of holding their arms outstretched to convey emotion in this one.

According to Ben Brewster, for the festival screening notes, the woman may be Florence Turner, the early movie star known as the "Vitagraph Girl." Interestingly, too, the girl, Adele de Garde, played the titular boy in another of these yellow-face productions, "Ito, the Beggar Boy" (1910).

Fortunately, as opposed to "The Love of Chrysanthemum" (1910), chrysanthemums are actually flowers this time. Unfortunately, the girl is named "Morning Glory," which is another flower. It'd be like watching a series of movies based on stereotypes of Westerners where everyone is named Daisy or Rose. Anyways, "Hako' Sacrifice" has the dubious distinction of not only being racist, but also classist, as it's yet another melodrama where the poor character is needlessly sacrificed for the benefit of a rich character--never mind that this sacrifice leaves the poor person is a far worse condition than the rich one would be in if no sacrifice were committed. I doubt it's just me who thinks sacrificing one's freedom to make a child believe they miraculously won a festival contest is an extremely stupid thing to do.

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