Sayonara is a story that was bold in the 1950s but to those of us living in the 21st century, it may seem old and outdated. Some of it may be a little casual - the lack of serious Japanese male actors, but the central theme of the story is still important. Marlon Brando, Red Buttons and James Garner are Americans, assigned to Japan after combat in Korea, with interests in Japanese women. Brando has an American fiancee whom it is apparent he is ambivilent about marrying - he seems to have been engaged for a very long time. Garner, as a Marine aviator, has a Japanese lady friend who is a professional dancer and Buttons his fiance that he wants to marry - regardless of the rules that make it difficult if not impossible to have a successful marriage.
Brando coming to Japan from Korea needs a break. He is starting to be troubled by what he is doing. He remarks to Buttons that one of his most recent aerial victories was over a man with a face. Appparently his previous victories were done at a long enough range that it didn't become so personal. This time it was different and is staying with him.
I think it it the story of Red Buttons and Miyoshi Umeki that is the most pivotal part of the story. They have the courage to get married and face the future as a couple. Brando's ambivilance to his fiancee finally causes him to walk away from her and hook up with Garner in the officer's club bar. They had become acquainted when Garner attempted to bring his Japanese guest into the officer's club and was refused permission to do so. Through Garner, Brando becomes interested in another famous professional dancer, Miiko Taka, and he begins a quest to meet her. He asks Buttons and Umeki to introduce him to Hana Ogi and the initial attempt is less than successful. Hana Ogi says she doesn't talk to Americans because during the war her brother and father were killed by the Americans. Brando is astonished by this thinking as he says he didn't kill them (guilt by association) and then Garner adds a telling and resonating comment "yes you did, we all did". Garner's role understands that in the eyes of Japanese all Americans participated in the leveling of Japanese cities and the starvation of the people through submarine warfare. It didn't matter if the servicemen they saw were in Europe during the war or were even to young to have fought there but were doing their two years service obligation (draft). At their first meeting she is stiff but soon becomes comfortable in Brando's presence.
Buttons has become the center of a campaign to transfer enlisted men who have married Japanese women and gets orders to return to the US. Brando, one of the few people he respects, tries to get the orders changed without success. Even the pregnancy of Button's wife has no effect on the decision. Faced with a life of seperation, suicide is their answer. This is after Umeki has the idea of having her eyelids slashed so that after the surgery they look like an AMerican woman. It is sad and frustrating to think that in the real world it was done as the flyer described that Umeki had in her hands. The musical accompaniment to Brando finding their bodies is extremely moving in this scene and is something I have remembered since I first saw this movie over forty years ago. Brando's performance as the grief stricken friend is superb - you can almost feel his pain and then anger as his ex-future father-in-law general tells him that the law is being changed and soon men like Buttons can bring Japanese wives to the US. It is a little late for Buttons and his wife though.
After the deaths of thier friends, Hana Ogi is moved to Tokyo by her company (afterall no matter how popular she is with the public, she is still an employee) Brando follows and it is there that they decide to face the offical displeasure of both countries and marry although it is extremely difficult for Hana Ogi to make the decision to turn her back on age old customs and traditions. Hana Ogi's description of how she came to be a dancer is chilling. I think she sees the difficult future much more clearly than Brando's character. yet they both are willing to take the risk.
There is another relationship that isn't discussed and that is the role of Eileen Webster (Brando's fiancee) and the kabuki dancer Nakamura. She has dinner with him, both with and without Brando and the topic of Brando's relationship with a famous Japanese dancer is discussed and in Nakamura's case discounted. Yet when Brando makes the announcement to the Webster family that he wants to marry a Japanese woman, Eileen walks out. Her mother asks her to stay and talk and Eileen responds that the only person she wants to talk to is Japanese - Nakamura. This could have been a much more intriguing situation. It was relatively common for American men to date and marry Japanese women. What would the reaction have been to the developing relationship between a Japanese man and an American woman? I think that has more societal impact for the late 1950s than an American man and Japanese woman.
Throughout the film the entire cast is extremely effective, from Buttons' enthusiasm over his future wife to Garner's anger at not being able to take a Japanese guest into the Officer's club. It all feels quite real. Look at the small details as Brando is waiting for Taka as she passes over a bridge every day to her performance. He makes an impression on her inspite of her resistance. This is a look at Japanese culture as well as the US military culture. Ricardo Montalban as a kabuki actor is exceptional - he deserved an academy award nomination as well as Buttons. James Garner is also exceptional as the Marine Corps aviator who is at first antagonistic to Brando but later introduces him to Japan outside of the officer's club. His performance is very under rated and deserves much greater praise.
The musical score of the movie is outstanding and has a very positive impact on the film scenes. Without this score I'm not sure how well the film would have been.
Oddly enough, some of the same themes from this film are resonating in my personal life as I am living in Japan. Some of the same issues that are raised in the film were ones that my wife to be had after I asked her to marry me. The issue of children especially resonated and still does from time to time. Her concern about what the child will be and all I can say is that it will be ours. I showed Rumi the last few minutes of the film and it had a powerful impression on her. It also showed her that her questions and concerns were not unique - that they have been discussed and argued over for decades.
It is a movie that does not end happily - maybe it ends hopefully is a better summary, as Brando and Taka take on the officials of Japan and the US. You think it will work but you don't know for sure.
Another point to think about is that in the 40s and 50s - a number of states had laws that forbid bi-racial marriages. A friend of my father's in the Navy had orders to a state where such a law was in operation and had to leave his Japanese wife and bi-racial son in Japan while he was doing his assignment in the US. The best the Navy could do was to give him as short an assignment as possible in the US and then hopen to get him back to Japan close to it - Guam, Korea, The Philippines or Vietnam. If Brando could take his Japanese wife back to the US - would he run afoul of state laws forbidding bi-racial marriages since many bases of the US military were located in the states where these laws were on the books - if not enfource.
This is a must see film for anyone interested in the military of the 1950s and the impact on Japan of the US and vice versa.
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