An average movie

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was starring Marlon Brando, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, to be honest, I’m rather surprised that this movie was at the time nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award. It’s not that the story didn’t have some potential. Back in those days, more than 10.000 US soldiers did indeed married a Japanese woman but it was something more or less prohibited or at least discouraged by the US army which was quite intriguing. Unfortunately, they actually messed up the tone. Indeed, even if it should have been a tragic romantic drama, it was fairly often rather frivolous. Even more problematic was how they portrayed the Japanese people though. First, you had the fact that the only Japanese male character was played by Ricardo Montalban, the famous Mexican actor. At least, the Japanese female characters were played by some actual Japanese actresses but what the makers did with these women was rather appalling. Indeed, it turned the whole thing into some kind of male fantasy in which the Japanese women were reduced to some obedient submissive servant with no personality whatsoever. At least, Lloyd  Gruver could have seduced Hana-Ogi but, instead, he kept stalking her and after a single conversation, she was just head over heels in love with him for no real reason. At least, I did like the (probably unintentional) parallel between this movie and Brando’s own career. Indeed, from the 60’s onwards, he constantly defied expectations, making some rather bewildering choices, instead of doing what was expected of him, even if he basically torpedoed his career in the process. Anyway, to conclude, I think this movie didn’t grow old well at all and you should probably avoid it, except maybe if you are a die-hard fan of Marlon Brando.