Mr. Wu is most renowned for Lon Chaney's makeup, but I'd have to say that after watching it the real star is Renee Adoree as Wu Nang Ping, Mr. Wu's daughter, and the only family he's had since his wife died in Nang Ping's infancy. Mr. Wu was a Mandarin raised learning the ways of the west, and since his tutor in western philosophy since his childhood, James Muir (Claude King), remained with him until his middle age, you'd have to believe there was a bond of friendship here, just not one of teacher and student. That's part of what makes what follows to be somewhat hard to believe when Wu basically stereotypes all Westerners as evil after receiving a terrible shock.
Right before Nang Ping's arranged marriage to another Mandarin, a destiny she readily accepts, she accidentally meets the son of a wealthy British family (Ralph Forbes as Basil Gregory) they both become infatuated with one another and Nang Ping becomes pregnant with his child. I've seen some summaries of this film saying that the British boy uses the girl and then abandons her, but when they both realize it will never work due to insurmountable cultural differences on both sides and must say goodbye forever, you can see the pain in the boy's face as much as Nang Ping's. Nang Ping lies and tells Basil that she really isn't pregnant so that he will go back to his family.
The problem is she really is pregnant, and worse, her father has found out what has been going on and with whom. To put it mildly, Mr. Wu does not take this news well. He decides to wreak havoc on the Gregory family by making Mrs. Gregory choose between her two children - either the death of her son or the rape of her daughter by one of Wu's servants. One thing I thought strange here - in spite of the fact that Chinese society at that time was a male dominated society, Mr. Wu chooses to deal with Mrs. Gregory, not Mr. Gregory when presenting this horrible choice. Wu may be blinded by fury, but he could at least see from an earlier meeting that Mr. Gregory was a complete dolt (think of a silent film version of Homer Simpson folks) and that Mrs. Gregory was the more sensitive and intelligent of the two, and therefore would be more devastated by having to choose between her two children.
I'll let you watch and see how this all plays out. Renee Adoree really does shine as Nang Ping, and we have very few performances of hers that survive by which to judge. She fell ill with tuberculosis in 1930 and died in 1933, so she has only small parts in the few talkies in which she participated. Ironically, the best known member of the cast today besides Lon Chaney is Anna May Wong as Loo Song, Mr. Wu's bride that lives only a year after their marriage and dies in childbirth, thus she hardly has any screen time.
Right before Nang Ping's arranged marriage to another Mandarin, a destiny she readily accepts, she accidentally meets the son of a wealthy British family (Ralph Forbes as Basil Gregory) they both become infatuated with one another and Nang Ping becomes pregnant with his child. I've seen some summaries of this film saying that the British boy uses the girl and then abandons her, but when they both realize it will never work due to insurmountable cultural differences on both sides and must say goodbye forever, you can see the pain in the boy's face as much as Nang Ping's. Nang Ping lies and tells Basil that she really isn't pregnant so that he will go back to his family.
The problem is she really is pregnant, and worse, her father has found out what has been going on and with whom. To put it mildly, Mr. Wu does not take this news well. He decides to wreak havoc on the Gregory family by making Mrs. Gregory choose between her two children - either the death of her son or the rape of her daughter by one of Wu's servants. One thing I thought strange here - in spite of the fact that Chinese society at that time was a male dominated society, Mr. Wu chooses to deal with Mrs. Gregory, not Mr. Gregory when presenting this horrible choice. Wu may be blinded by fury, but he could at least see from an earlier meeting that Mr. Gregory was a complete dolt (think of a silent film version of Homer Simpson folks) and that Mrs. Gregory was the more sensitive and intelligent of the two, and therefore would be more devastated by having to choose between her two children.
I'll let you watch and see how this all plays out. Renee Adoree really does shine as Nang Ping, and we have very few performances of hers that survive by which to judge. She fell ill with tuberculosis in 1930 and died in 1933, so she has only small parts in the few talkies in which she participated. Ironically, the best known member of the cast today besides Lon Chaney is Anna May Wong as Loo Song, Mr. Wu's bride that lives only a year after their marriage and dies in childbirth, thus she hardly has any screen time.