Random Discovery: Sayonara

I actually saw the last five minutes of Sayonara (1957) back when we had a fantastic channel called Silver Screen Classics as our free cable preview. When I saw it at the library, I figured I'd get around to watching the rest.

Based on a semi-autobiographical novel by the man who wrote the similarly-themed Tales from the South Pacific, and directed by the same man who adapted that story into film, Sayonara opens during the Korean War with an exhausted flying ace being grounded and reassigned to Kobe for hazy reasons that mostly involve facilitating his marriage to a general's daughter. The son of a general himself, and a highly decorated officer, Lloyd (Marlon Brando) is a catch his fiancee Eileen's mother doesn't want to let slip away. When Eileen surprises him in Kobe, Lloyd is tired, depressed, restless from being grounded, and unafraid to admit that he'll marry her, but he isn't exactly crazy about her. Eileen isn't crazy enough about him to marry him under those conditions, and the two begin a distant, awkward dance as neither is decisive enough to blow off their engagement so hastily.

Also reassigned to Kobe for equally hazy reasons is one of the airmen in Lloyd's squadron, Joe Kelly (Red Buttons). Joe is thrilled about going to Kobe, because then he'll be with the woman of his dreams: a shy and gentle Japanese national named Katsumi. Stationed in Korea, with most troops taking leaves in Tokyo, despite the Japanese having been the enemy just six years earlier a lot of U.S. soldiers are finding love in ol' Edo. The army is not happy about it, doing everything in its power to prevent these matches. Lloyd is asked to try talking Joe out of marrying Katsumi, but is unsuccessful, and defying his country, his army, his friends, deadly stacks of paperwork, and the knowledge that Japanese nationals are denied entry to the U.S., Joe and Katsumi wed under the sullen eye of an embassy clerk...with Lloyd as their best man. Lloyd doesn't approve of the marriage, but as Joe's former commanding officer feels an obligation to honour the man's request. With Joe being his only real connection in Kobe, and having little else to do, Lloyd begins accepting regular invitations to Joe and Katsumi's home, and in the process begins learning that there are some very pleasant aspects to the new Mrs. Kelly's country and culture.

He also begins learning this outside the Kelly home by going to the theater. Slowly developing an appreciation for kabuki and dance revues, he quickly develops an appreciation for the star dancer of the Matsubayashi troupe, the stunning and mysterious Hana-ogi. When Lloyd finally scores a meeting with Hana-ogi under the guise of dinner at the Kelly's, he learns that she hates Americans because her family died during U.S. bombings. Gently reminding her that he lost a lot of friends to the Japanese during the war, Lloyd's pursuit of Hana-ogi begins in earnest. With Lloyd facing condemnation from the military and Hana-ogi facing condemnation from her countrymen, who don't approve of marrying Americans any more than the Americans approve of marrying Japanese, Lloyd remains stubborn and shameless as he tries to coax Hana-ogi out of her reticence. However, things start to unravel on all ends when an order making fraternization with Japanese women a court-martial offense comes on the heels of Joe (and thousands of other airmen in his situation) being ordered back to the States, where the army hopes they'll forget about the wives they can't enter the country with.

Consisting mostly of static dialogue and demonstrations of Japanese culture, Sayonara is a film that's more important than it is good. It's hard to watch even when nothing bad is happening on-screen, because Brando suffuses the whole film with Lloyd's restlessness and frustration over being removed from his squadron, and so the whole thing takes on a very uncomfortable atmosphere. However, Brando is always a treat to watch, and the earnest, quiet contentment Red Buttons brings to his character keeps the film breathing. For her gentle, mostly Japanese-speaking or silent performance, the actress who played Katsumi was awarded a Best Supporting Actress Oscar. There's a lot of solid acting in this film. There are also many interesting aspects to the story, aside from the racial integration plot. For one thing, Katsumi is not a woman for the audience to fall for, an exotic, classical beauty for whose love any man would put aside race like Hana-ogi is. She's quite plain, almost boyish, and Joe is head-over-heels crazy about her. In the context of era, I think this may be the single most important way in which the film conveys its message. Joe doesn't love Katsumi because she's exotic and sexy, though to him Katsumi is always the most beautiful women in the room. Joe loves Katsumi because she's a delightful, loving, loveable soul, and their story is captivating. Another interesting plot point is the demonstration that finding dishonour in marrying someone from a particular country goes both ways, and on top of that, Hana-ogi has a good reason why her marrying anybody would be dishonourable.

There are some pretty strong negative opinions of Sayonara floating around on the Web, mostly interpreting it as a cautionary tale about how headstrong women (like Eileen) lose their men, who only want docile women (like Katsumi) who slavishly cater to their every whim, as demonstrated by Joe and Katsumi's "shallow" relationship - to which, were I not so long-winded, my response would be "...what?" There's a point to which I can understand that analysis, as Joe and Katsumi are shown to fall in love and marry before either of them can speak a word of the other's language, which can easily seem unwise or based on lust. However, marriage in that context is also a logical conclusion to the idea that a person is defined by their actions, a popular concept touted on most any program on U.S. or Canadian network in which interpersonal relations are a factor, and a regular feature in Western cinema spanning such diverse fare as District 9, The Rock, Get Carter, Unforgiven, The Iron Giant, Iron Man, Heat, Hellboy, Spider-Man, and any romantic comedy or Disney film you can name (are you trying to name one that doesn't apply? You must have some time on your hands). As well, the idea that the marriage in question is shallow and baseless is subtly but decisively countered in the film, as we're shown Joe and Katsumi's relationship continuing to grow and thrive after they gain verbal communication. And calling the marriage shallow based on the way it ends, as many do, would necessitate applying the same criticism to most if not all of Shakespeare's tragedies while also ignoring what a common conclusion it is in Japanese storytelling. Mostly, though, I think to view Sayonara as a cautionary anti-feminist tale is to miss its message of understanding cultural differences, as servant actions are an integral part of the Japanese tradition and not limited to female roles. This is briefly demonstrated in the film in the scene where Lloyd learns how to serve and drink sake. In the context of this particular story, condemning a cornerstone of Japanese culture as backward or misogynistic seems rather ironic, though I suppose interpreting Katsumi's servience as an anti-feminst fantasy isn't suprising considering how many of the sacrificial servant themes of Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai were stripped for its beloved American redux, The Magnificent Seven. Does that make service a literally foreign concept?

Sayonara is kind of a boring film, but it is an interesting story. And there are some weird and telling things about the atmosphere in which it was made that add to the interest, like how Audrey Hepburn was the first choice to play Hana-ogi (she refused, saying it was a great script but it would be ridiculous to try passing her off as Japanese), or how the only male Japanese character in the film is played by everyone's favourite late, great Mexican, Ricardo Montalban (is it an indication of foreign women being considered exotic and sexy but foreign men being a threat, or was the role first offered to a non-Japanese actor, who in this case accepted it?). Should you come across it, it's a pretty good diversion for when you're doing something boring that doesn't let you look at the TV, like the dishes; a revealing slice of the recent past.