The Toll of the Sea (1922) was the first feature produced by the Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation to receive wide release. A moving adaptation of Madame Butterfly transposed from Japan to China by screenwriter Frances Marion, it was inspired by David Belasco's popular theatrical production (1900) and Giacomo Puccini's celebrated opera (1904). Anna May Wong's career-making performance combines naturalistic gestures with the pictorial distillation of nineteenth century melodrama. Both figures and objects were carefully arranged by director Chester M. Franklin to maximize the impact of 2-strip Technicolor, a subtractive process that isolated parts of the light spectrum to produce a pair of red and green strips. The absence of blue gives rose bushes, cliffs, and skies both graphic force and a unique beauty.