Sayonara (1957)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

Joshua Logan

Writers:

James Michener (novel)
Paul Osborn (screenplay)

Release Date:

1957 (Japan)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Tagline:

Worlds apart...theirs was the daring love affair violating every rule, every custom, every centuries-old belief!

Plot:

A US air force major in Kobe confronts his own opposition to marriages between American servicemen and Japanese women when he falls for a beautiful performer.

Plot Keywords:

American | Korean War | Military | Interracial Romance | Duty

Awards:

Won 4 Oscars. Another 5 wins & 13 nominations

Cast

Marlon Brando	...	Maj. Lloyd 'Ace' Gruver - USAF
Patricia Owens	...	Eileen Webster
Red Buttons	...	Airman Joe Kelly
Miiko Taka	...	Hana-ogi
Ricardo Montalban	...	Nakamura
Martha Scott	...	Mrs. Webster
Miyoshi Umeki	...	Katsumi
James Garner	...	Capt. Mike Bailey - USMC
Kent Smith	...	Lt. Gen. Mark Webster
Douglass Watson	...	Colonel Crawford
Reiko Kuba	...	Fumiko-San
Soo Yong	...	Teruko-san
Shochiku Kagekidan Girls Revue	...	Dancers

Runtime:

147 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Japanese

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo (RCA Sound Recording)

Certification:

USA:Approved | West Germany:12 | Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | South Korea:15 | Sweden:15 | Argentina:Atp

Filming Locations:

Japan

Company:

Pennebaker Productions

Trivia:

Audrey Hepburn was offered the role of a Japanese bride opposite Marlon Brando but turned it down. She explained that she "couldn't possibly play an Oriental. No one would believe me; they'd laugh. It's a lovely script, however I know what I can and can't do. And if you did persuade me, you would regret it, because I would be terrible."

Goofs:

Continuity: When Maj. Gruver steps down from the airplane in Kobe's airport, he is carrying a suitcase and an overcoat. But when he approaches to Gen. Webster and wife, all his baggage disappears.

Quotes:

Major Gruver: This is the first liquid rice I have ever run into!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Twice in a Lifetime: What She Did for Love (#1.12)" (1999)

Soundtrack:

Sayonara

Post-war attempt to re-humanize the Japanese

Showing that we needed them to such an extent in the fight against communism that it might even be permissible to fall in love with one.

The movie is memorable for some great lines from Brando: "Hell, I ain't got nothing against the Japanese... well, not now anyway." and for the astonishing casting of Ricardo Montalban as Kabuki master Nakamura Jakoemon II (actually he was pretty good in the part except for the Spanish accent).

The young Brando is excellent in his fidgeting, distracted way. Scenes of 1950s Japan are also interesting. But the film predictably suffers from a romanticized vision of Japanese women (delicate, doll-like creatures who wish for nothing more than to scrub their husbands' back in the tub), and of Japanese life (the 'little house down by the canal' that Kelly and his Japanese wife move into is a museum-quality example of the Japanese wooden and paper-wall house, complete with internal Zen garden).