# The Dragon Painter (1919)

I've been researching newly public domain films from 1929 and earlier, along with other pictures of the era that I find interesting, so I'm uploading the best possible copies that I can find. In this silent romance drama, Tatsu, played by Sessue Hayakawa, is a painter who lives in the mountains of Hakawa, Japan. He has a strange obsession that the villagers gossip about: he believes he once had a fiancé who was turned into a dragon by the gods. This film from Hayakawa's independent studio was a minor success upon release, and since being rediscovered in 1988 has found new fans worldwide.

- Kind: Feature
- Year: 1919
- By: William Worthington, Richard Schayer, Mary McNeil Fenollosa
- Genres: Drama, Romance, Silent
- Archive: [Internet Archive](https://archive.org/details/the-dragon-painter-1919)
- Licence or status: [Public Domain Mark 1.0](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/) (as the archive states it)
- Who can watch: Teens profiles and older (the archive gives no rating; placed by Invisible Network from its collection and subjects)

[Watch now](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/watch/archive/ia/the-dragon-painter-1919?play=1)