The Teahouse of the August Moon (film)

The Teahouse of the August Moon

original film poster
Directed by Daniel Mann
Produced by Jack Cummings
Written by John Patrick
Vern J. Sneider (novel)
Starring Marlon Brando
Glenn Ford
Machiko Kyō
Paul Ford
Music by Saul Chaplin
June Hershey
Kikuko Kanai
Don Swander
Kikuro Kanai
Cinematography John Alton
Edited by Harold F. Kress
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release dates
 December 1956 (1956-12)
Running time
 99 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $3,926,000[1]
Box office $8,925,000[1][2]

The Teahouse of the August Moon is a 1956 American comedy film satirizing the U.S. occupation and Americanization of the island of Okinawa following the end of World War II in 1945. The motion picture starred Marlon Brando and was directed by Daniel Mann.

John Patrick adapted the screenplay from his own Pulitzer Prize– and Tony Award–winning Broadway play of 1953. The play was, in turn, adapted from a 1951 novel by Vern J. Sneider.[3] The film was entered into the 7th Berlin International Film Festival.[4]

Plot

Misfit Captain Fisby (Glenn Ford) is sent to Americanize the village of Tobiki on Okinawa, the largest of the Ryukyu Islands. His commanding officer, Colonel Wainwright Purdy III (Paul Ford), assigns him a wily local, Sakini (Marlon Brando), as interpreter.

Fisby tries to implement the military's plans by encouraging the villagers to build a school in the shape of a pentagon, but they want to build a teahouse instead. Fisby gradually becomes assimilated to the local customs and mores with the help of Sakini and Lotus Blossom, a young geisha (Machiko Kyō).

To revive the economy, he has the Okinawans manufacture small items to sell as souvenirs, but nobody wants to buy them. These include cricket cages and wooden Japanese footwear called geta. Then Fisby makes a happy discovery. The villagers distill a potent sweet potato brandy in a matter of days which finds a ready market in the American army. With the influx of money, the teahouse is built in next to no time.

When Purdy sends psychiatrist Captain McLean (Eddie Albert) to check up on Fisby, the newcomer is quickly won over. This, even after Fisby greets McLean wearing geta, an army bathrobe (which Fisby claims is his kimono) and what Fisby terms an "air-conditioned" straw hat (the latter being headwear worn by Okinawan farmers). McLean later proves to be enthusiastic about organic farming.

When Purdy doesn't hear from either officer, he shows up in person and surprises Fisby and McLean, the latter wearing a yukata (summer-weight kimono). They are leading a rowdy song at a party in full swing in the teahouse. Purdy orders the building and distillery destroyed. In a burst of foresight, the villagers break up old water urns rather than the brandy storage and only dismantle the teahouse, hiding the sections.

Ironically, the village is chosen by the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers (SCAP) as an example of successful American-led democratization. This leads to Colonel Purdy's regretting his actions and to reassembling the teahouse.

Cast

Production

Playing the role of an Okinawan villager was to prove an interesting challenge for Marlon Brando's method acting techniques. He spent two months studying local culture, speech, and gestures and, for the actual shooting, spent two hours daily having make-up applied to make him appear Asian.[5]

The role of Colonel Wainwright Purdy III was to have been played by Louis Calhern, but he died in Nara during filming and was replaced by Paul Ford.[6] Ford had played the part more than a thousand times, having been one of the Broadway originals, and he would play a similarly bumbling, harassed colonel hundreds of times more in Phil Silvers' TV series Bilko.

Ford was not the only actor who went on to be cast in a television series role very similar to his Teahouse character. Like the psychiatrist Captain McLean, Eddie Albert's "Oliver Wendell Douglas" on Green Acres (1965-1971) was a licensed professional with an advanced degree, who obsessed about the glory of farming and yearned to give up his practice in favor of tending the soil.

The film made use of Japanese music recorded in Kyoto and sung and danced by Japanese artists. Machiko Kyo (Lotus Blossom) had won acclaim for her dramatic performances in Rashomon and Gate of Hell, so this lightly comedic part was a departure for her.[7]

Restoration

Recent restoration of the film has apparently left some edits where memorable lines have been lost.

Reception

The film was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Motion Picture Promoting International Understanding. A 1971 musical version of the play Lovely Ladies, Kind Gentlemen ran two weeks on Broadway, closing after just 19 performances.

Box office

According to MGM records, the film earned $5,550,000 in the US and Canada and $3,375,000 elsewhere, making it the studio's biggest hit of the year and earning a profit of $1,507,000.[1]

Legacy

Alongside Japanese War Bride and the more famous Sayonara film, The Teahouse of the August Moon was argued by some scholars to have increased racial tolerance in the United States by openly discussing interracial marriages.[8] Other scholars have argued that the movie is one in a long list stereotyping Asian American women as "lotus blossom, geisha girl, china doll, or Suzie Wong" by presenting Asian women as "passive, sexually compliant and easy to seduce" or as downright prostitutes.[9]

In more recent years, the movie has been criticized by some critical theorists and Brando's performance branded as an example of yellowface casting.[10][11]

In 1980, Michael Medved gave Marlon Brando's performance in the film the Golden Turkey Award for "Most Ludicrous Racial Impersonation".

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study.
  2. ↑ US and Canada take see "All Time Domestic Champs", Variety, 6 January 1960 p 34
  3. ↑ Sneider, Vern J. (1951). The Teahouse of the August Moon. New York: Putnam. OCLC 429098.
  4. ↑ "IMDB.com: Awards for The Teahouse of the August Moon". imdb.com. Retrieved 2009-12-30.
  5. ↑ Thomas, Tony, The Films of Marlon Brando, p. 97
  6. ↑ trivia, IMDb
  7. ↑ Thomas, Tony, The Films of Marlon Brando, p. 100
  8. ↑ Sarah Kovner (2012). Occupying Power: Sex Workers and Servicemen in Postwar Japan. Stanford University Press. pp. 65–66. ISBN 978-0-8047-8346-0.
  9. ↑ Edith Wen-Chu Chen (2010). Encyclopedia of Asian American Issues Today. ABC-CLIO. pp. 644–645. ISBN 978-0-313-34751-1.
  10. ↑ AsianWeek (2007-11-28). "The 25 Most Infamous Yellow Face Film Performances". Asianweek.com. Retrieved 2012-08-15.
  11. ↑ "Yellowface: A Story in Pictures :: Racebending.com | Advocating for Equality in Entertainment". Racebending.com. 2009-12-09. Retrieved 2012-08-15.
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