I bow to none in my admiration of Alec Guinness' acting prowess, but sometimes there are just roles which no self-respecting practitioner of the art should accept -- unless forced to at gunpoint -- and this was one of them.
I won't say Sir Alec didn't give it a good try. He had the mannerisms and body language down quite well, but OMG, that accent. And the makeup. And the director's insistence on shooting Guinness in profile -- there's just no way that nose could ever appear on a Japanese face!
It's a testament to Guinness' skill that there were times when I could almost suspend my disbelief. Almost. But ultimately this has to go down as one of the worst casting decisions since Brando portrayed an Okinawan in "Teahouse of the August Moon". (Although to be fair, neither was as flat-out jaw-droppingly bizarre as John Wayne's epically awful Genghis Khan, in "The Conqueror".)
Which is too bad, really. The movie had a lot of good things going for it, including a fairly touching chemistry between the leads as an American widow and Japanese widower who each lost a son in the war. There are solid supporting performances, too, and some nice comedic touches. Plus it's hard to actively dislike a film which includes a rare cameo by Mae Questel -- the voice of Betty Boop.
Besides Sir Alec's miscasting, there's also the sets, especially that horrific attempt at a Zen garden at Asano's residence. Maybe the producers thought the audience wanted that blatantly artificial look, so they could pretend they too were watching this hit play on Broadway. Then again, making the sets more believable might have only drawn more attention to Guinness' absurd makeup.
I won't say Sir Alec didn't give it a good try. He had the mannerisms and body language down quite well, but OMG, that accent. And the makeup. And the director's insistence on shooting Guinness in profile -- there's just no way that nose could ever appear on a Japanese face!
It's a testament to Guinness' skill that there were times when I could almost suspend my disbelief. Almost. But ultimately this has to go down as one of the worst casting decisions since Brando portrayed an Okinawan in "Teahouse of the August Moon". (Although to be fair, neither was as flat-out jaw-droppingly bizarre as John Wayne's epically awful Genghis Khan, in "The Conqueror".)
Which is too bad, really. The movie had a lot of good things going for it, including a fairly touching chemistry between the leads as an American widow and Japanese widower who each lost a son in the war. There are solid supporting performances, too, and some nice comedic touches. Plus it's hard to actively dislike a film which includes a rare cameo by Mae Questel -- the voice of Betty Boop.
Besides Sir Alec's miscasting, there's also the sets, especially that horrific attempt at a Zen garden at Asano's residence. Maybe the producers thought the audience wanted that blatantly artificial look, so they could pretend they too were watching this hit play on Broadway. Then again, making the sets more believable might have only drawn more attention to Guinness' absurd makeup.