Walk Like a Dragon

There r unspoken rules in film (esp. in genre films & esp. in 1960) & this 1 disregards all of them in favor of something that must've been so groundbreaking back then that it's easy 2 c y this has faded in2 utter obscurity. Its insistence on trading asian stereotypes in 4 more dignified, yet far from perfect portrayals, may seem PC now, but makes 4 a surprising narrative & a thoroughly non-mainstream ending that, paradoxically, would very likely please both multicultural extremists & racists.

The most morally and aesthetically unsettling film I’ve seen since Robin Redbreast. Told with all the technical conventions of an episode of Gunsmoke, it’s almost incendiary in how well it gets away with its taboo-blasting themes. Politics of gender, religion, and ethics crossover racial East and West borders into a moral smoothie of dubious but human quality. It feels real in its fucked-upness. Josephine Hutchinson is MVP for carrying all those themes.