Forbidden City, USA
                   
Director: Arthur Dong
Year: 1989
Rating: 7.5
I only wish this was longer. At 56 minutes this documentary about a Chinese nightclub in San Francisco from the late 1930s to the early 1960s flew by much too quickly. I could have watched clips and listened to the remembrances for much longer. When Arthur Dong directed this in 1989 a number of the performers and the owner of the club were still alive and were willing to talk about the good old days. And for them they were the good old days. They had to deal with basic prejudices from the white community but also as performers from the Chinese community. All of them tell similar stories about having parents who were very traditional and didn't want their children dancing or singing. But they had a desire to do so and pursued their dreams and Forbidden City allowed them to do so. So, we have the Chinese Fred Astaire, the Chinese Sophie Tucker, the Chinese Frank Sinatra.

 

Forbidden City was a snazzy splashy high tone night club just like we see in the movies of that period. Various acts performing, cigarette girls walking around, the owner pattering at each table - the only difference from other clubs was that the staff and performers were all Asian. Pretty much an unheard-of thing in America at the time. It was opened in 1938 by Charlie Low who saw an opportunity. It not only attracted Chinese but was a must go night out for white visitors and soldiers on leave. It was located a few blocks outside of Chinatown and felt safe to these visitors.



Sometimes these performers went out on the road to perform and they talk about meeting prejudice - and in the south trying to figure which bathroom to use - black or white. But mainly met with curiosity down south where people had never seen a Chinese person in the flesh. As they are interviewed in the present, photos of them back in the day are shown and damn, all the women were glamorous and beautiful and the men dashing. This is a chapter of entertainment and life that has gotten very little attention, the performers mainly forgotten except a few that showed up in films for a brief performance. After the war ended, the days of the nightclubs began to fade away. Soldiers came back and got married, people began watching TV and nightclubs all over the country began to close. A tragedy to me who loves seeing them in the movies and wishes I was there.