This presentation explores the topic concerning Japanese and American movies made during WWII and in postwar years, concerning Russian emigrants' everyday life and domesticity in Manchuria, China and Japan. The critical point is that the "Russians" in all these movies are not episodic, but the main characters. In this presentation, we focus on presenting the "females’characters" in the films called “My Nightingale” (1944), “Tokyo Joe” (1949), “Tokyo File 212” (1951), “Countess from Hong Kong” (1967) and “White Countess” (2005). Among them, "My Nightingale" ("Watashi-no-uguisu" in Japanese), made by the Man'ei film studio in 1943-1944. being de facto the first Japanese film musical, was considered lost for many years and remains almost unknown to the general audience. The leading roles in these moviesare played not only by professional actors but also by ordinary members of the Russian emigration community living in Orient. Also, the leading Japanese and other characters played by the stars of the past and present era of cinematography, were somehow impacted by Russian culture. Some of them not only speak but also sing romances in Russian throughout the movie. In this presentation, we explore how film propaganda was using Russian emigrants to create a certain image of the happy or hard domestic life among the foreign communities in the East-Asian countries.
