Complete credited cast: | |||
Marlon Brando | ... | Major Lloyd Gruver | |
Patricia Owens | ... | Eileen Webster | |
James Garner | ... | Captain Mike Bailey | |
Martha Scott | ... | Mrs. Webster | |
Miiko Taka | ... | Hana-Ogi | |
Miyoshi Umeki | ... | Katsumi | |
Red Buttons | ... | Joe Kelly | |
Kent Smith | ... | General Mark Webster | |
Douglass Watson | ... | Colonel Crawford (as Douglas Watson) | |
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Reiko Kuba | ... | Fumiko-San |
Soo Yong | ... | Teruko-San | |
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Shochiku Kagekidan Girls Revue | ... | Theatrical Revue |
Ricardo Montalban | ... | Nakamura |
Major Lloyd Gruver, a Korean War flying ace reassigned to Japan, staunchly supports the military's opposition to marriages between American troops and Japanese women. But that's before Gruver experiences a love that challenges his own deeply set prejudices... and plunges him into conflict with the U.S. Air Force and Japan's own cultural taboos. Written by alfiehitchie
James Michener, himself a U.S. veteran of the Pacific war and married to a Japanese, wrote one of his earliest novels on the then controversial subject of romance among the former enemies. The novel follows two Americans who romance Japanese women, one with tragic results. The film gives a nice colorful richness to life in Kabuki theatre, post-war Japan and the USAF. Production design and costuming are first rate and lend the appropriate note of exoticness to the culture clash plot line. It is interesting that the script balances American bigotry toward the Japanese off against Japanese attitudes toward Americans. Miiko Taka lacks some credibility in the role of a famous entertainer - she neither dances nor sings particularly well - who in the book is almost a national treasure, leading to a scandal when she gets involved with an Air Force officer, Brando, who is very good here in a rare straight romantic role.