To discuss all western films which depict the asian as Yellow Peril would be far beyond the scope of this humble article. Instead, I narrow it down to the movies of Fu Manchu. In addition to the nine films listed here, the 1950s serial The Drums of Fu Manchu should also be mentioned, as well as the 1980s Peter Sellers comedy The Fiendish Plot of Fu Manchu. Completists must, for now, do without an analysis of these two, the first being considered a serial and not a film (although it was later edited into a feature length picture), and the second being considered not worth the effort to add, for the moment.

Most fans of the Fu Manchu films consider Boris Karloff's Mask of Fu Manchu to be the best, and he surely is the top in terms of demonic, monstrous evil. But for my money, the best Fu Manchu has to be Christopher Lee. Somewhat wooden, a weird, occasional accent, strange gestures, and really poorly written lines somehow just add to my enjoyment of his performance. The fact that he is the most hulking, gigantically tall Chinese man I have ever seen, makes it even better. Humorously enough, Sax Rohmer's widow, on the set of The Face of Fu Manchu, claimed that Christopher Lee was the 'spitting image' of the man Sax Rohmer saw in London's Limehouse district so long ago, the man that became the inspiration for the character of Fu Manchu.