Special Admission: $8. Advance tickets available at the Castro and PFA. This screening features a newly commissioned score by noted Bay Area musician Mark Izu, performed by Izu on bass, sho and percussion; Pamela Arther on keyboards and percussion; Miya Masaoka on koto and percussion; and Jim Norton on woodwinds and percussion. Presented in association with the National Asian American Telecommunications Association. Until recently, The Dragon Painter was a lost part of American film history. Now restored, it takes its place as one of the finest films produced by and starring matinee idol Sessue Hayakawa. Hayakawa portrays Tatsu, a wild and reclusive painter whose obsession is the image of his "dragon princess." Set in Japan but filmed in the spectacular beauty of Yosemite Valley in 1919, The Dragon Painter was intended to provide a very different picture of Japan and Japanese culture than was being shown in other films of the period. A romantic allegory about love, desire, and artistic inspiration, it was one of the first films to present a Japanese aesthetic to an American audience. The performances by Hayakawa and Tsuru Aoki, his wife and frequent co-star, are a revelation.