Released just six months after Fine Feathers, A Japanese Idyll offers a similarly self-conscious meditation on the commodification of female imagery – in this case, commercial photography rather than painting. After seeing a portrait secretly taken by a western photographer, a wealthy merchant falls in love with Cherry Blossom, a young Japanese woman who does everything she can to extricate herself from the man’s affections. The film contains striking lighting effects using shoji screens and nighttime scenes, using its Japanese setting to drawn attention to the ‘exoticization’ of Cherry Blossom’s image.