Presented in a recently restored, tinted print, J'ai tué! is the second of several films Sessue Hayakawa made in France, where he had a "second career" when his star began to wane in Hollywood. (In 1937 he starred in Marcel L'Herbier's French remake of The Cheat, Forfeiture.) Hayakawa was much admired in France for his non-theatrical, essentially cinematic style of acting. In J'ai tué! he plays a young Japanese antique dealer who is taken in by a professor of Orientalism, and ends up confessing to a murder he did not commit in order to protect the reputation of the professor's young wife. His unique screen presence, devoid of posing and make-up, distinguishes this film which in other ways exemplifies the search for exoticism found in French films of the Art Deco period. An atmosphere of decadence is implied in sets by Donatien and effects by Segundo de Chomón. As if in disobedient contrast to the unreal precepts of this high-society drama, the film contains documentary footage of the earthquake that occurred in Japan in 1923! Along with exterior shots of Paris in the twenties, this footage makes J'ai tué! a rare artifact indeed.