Review: Sayonara

Southern-accented Korean War pilot (stationed in Japan) Marlon Brando tries half-heartedly to dissuade fellow soldier Red Buttons from marrying sweet-natured Japanese woman Miyoshi Umeki, and ends up falling in love with a local himself, revered entertainer Miiko Taka. Things work out OK for one couple, but the other...not so much. Patricia Owens plays Brando’s increasingly impatient fiancé, with three-star General Kent Smith her father, who is also a friend of Brando’s father, and goes along with military policy of soldiers not fraternising with the locals. Martha Scott plays the typically annoying, ignorant American, Owens’ mother, who actually seems scared of foreigners. James Garner is likeable as a fellow soldier who first introduces Brando to Taka. Ricardo Montalban, under much makeup, plays a Kabuki theatre actor friend of Owens.

Hokey, but sincere and likeable 1957 Joshua Logan (“Picnic” and the outstanding Marilyn Monroe vehicle “Bus Stop”) film is one of the better Hollywood dealings with racism of the period (certainly one of the least dated, despite Ricardo Montalban ‘turning Japanese’, he’s actually pretty decent). And hey, where else are you gonna see Marlon Brando and Red Buttons in kimonos, drinking sake?

The production is absolutely gorgeous, thanks in large part to Oscar-nominated cinematography by Ellsworth Fredericks (“Friendly Persuasion”, Don Siegel’s “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”), and Oscar-winning Art Direction and Set Decoration by Ted Haworth (“Strangers on a Train”, “Some Like it Hot”) and Robert Priestley (“Rancho Notorious”, “Sirocco”), respectively.

It’s a bit melodramatic at times, and Brando’s umpteenth poor attempt at a mumbling southern drawl is pretentious and distracting to a great degree. The rest of the performances, however, are terrific, especially an enormously appealing, Oscar-winning Buttons and the lovely Taka. One of the best films of its type, at any rate. The screenplay is by Paul Osborn (“East of Eden”, “The Yearling”), from the novel by James A. Michener, who himself married a Japanese woman, and whose “Bridges at Toko-Ri” and “Hawaii” were turned into films. In addition to the Art Direction, and actors Buttons and Umeki, the film won an Oscar for Sound, and was nominated for Picture, Best Actor (Brando), Director, Screenplay, Cinematography and Editing.

Rating: B-