The Teahouse of the August Moon

For a guy who had some heavy duty roles,Waterfront,Sreetcar etc. this role was a real challenge for Brando and he is fabulous and steals movie although Glenn Ford is great too. This shows Brando's brilliance as an actor not that there was ever any doubt but this early in his career to take this comedic challenge shows his versatility. Is Glenn Ford ever bad? I don't think he gets the credit for all his talent. This movie probably could not be made today a victim of PC. Must have Asian play Asian and don't offend the the Japanese although the only people made to look like fool were the Americans which is fine with me because it's a comedy and people are suppose to look foolish. Never on, but caught on TCM.

Marlon Brando was amazing in this film. I saw the comments made on TCM before they started the film and they said he saw the stage play and begged Paramount (?) to let him have a part in it when they made the film. They said he could have any part he wanted and he picked Sakini, the translator. As a Japanese teacher I want to tell you that I was stunned at his perfect accent! He spoke English exactly as a native Japanese person would. If I hadn't been told ahead of time that it was Marlon Brando, there is no way you could have convinced me that it wasn't a native Japanese actor doing the part. I could see that an attempt was made to make the natives look uneducated and doltish, but having lived in Japan for a year and a half, I simply couldn't see them that way. All you have to do is take a few minutes to watch any people and see the intelligence in their eyes and in their mannerisms and you can see how intelligent they really are whether YOU understand their language or not!

Marlon Brando stars as a Japanese interpreter and Glenn Ford plays a captain who has been in almost every branch in the military. Ford is ordered to go to a Japanese village to teach the people about democracy and to build a schoolhouse in the shape of the pentagon. The Japanese are only interested in building a teahouse and their isn't enough money to build both. The Japanese try to sell some homemade stuff but it won't sell until Ford finds out that they also make brandy. The military can't get enough brandy, so they build a teahouse instead of a schoolhouse. The military don't like what Ford is doing so they send a psychiatrist but he ends up helping them out instead. I thought Glenn Ford was great here and Brando also did a good job.

If you're not a fan of Glenn Ford's westerns, and you think he's merely an ordinary everyman, check out his timed perfection in The Teahouse of the August Moon. With such great talent, it's a wonder Jack Lemmon rose to stardom so quickly. Glenn has all the hesitation, stammering, exasperation, and desire to fix that it takes to be a comic genius. If the first time around, you don't catch all his jokes, don't worry. You were just laughing so hard, you couldn't keep up with the fast pace.

Every time I watch this delightful gem, I laugh myself sick. It does have a long running time, but it certainly goes by quickly. Glenn Ford's character is stationed in Okinawa after WWII, to oversee reconstruction and the wellbeing of the Japanese people. But in his mission to spread democracy, he's completely clueless in his new environment. Marlon Brando plays the scene-stealing Sakini, a Japanese interpreter who winks at and nudges the audience when he wants to make an inside joke. But even with an interpreter, Glenn still finds himself getting into one misunderstanding after another.

While it's seen as "white washing" by today's standards, Marlon Brando didn't intend for his performance to be offensive. In fact, he lived in a nearby Japanese village for four months to absorb the mannerisms, accent, and mentality of the local people. I found his portrayal of the savvy interpreter to be flawless; not only that, but I couldn't find any trace of his usual expressions or gestures. He completely transformed himself.

The story is heartwarming, funny, smart, and bittersweet. From Eddie Albert's obsession with soil and worms to Machiko Kyo's touching tea ceremony, this 1956 comedy is a one-of-a-kind gem with countless delightful moments.

This film made me realize how much we've lost as a country since the 1950s. According to Wikipedia at least, the book, play, and film were enormously popular for about 25 years, when political correctness set in, and liberals were oh-so-terribly aghast at Marlon Brando playing an Okinawan with a heavy accent. But it's Brando's character who is the most admirable in the movie -- sharp, perceptive, and cunning, but also warm, generous, and forgiving.

All told, it's the Okinawans who come off well -- it is we Americans who seem rather ridiculous, with our notions of winning hearts and minds and spreading democracy. Remember that this film was made just ten years after WWII, when we were up against the Soviet Union, and democracy and "the American way" were at the heart of what we thought we were all about. But here is a film that completely satirizes, if not ridicules, all that, and yet it was enormously popular.

Perhaps I'm looking at it through rose-tinted lenses -- there may well have been the Michael Savages and Rush Limbaughs of the day who inveighed against the Hollywood liberals seeking to undermine American resolve in the face of the Soviet threat and disgracing the memory of those who had died in WWII.

But I think, more accurately, it was a time of greater American self- confidence, when we were able to laugh at ourselves more easily, and weren't terrified that this, that or another group might be ticked off.

In short, this is a wise movie that should be seen by all those in power who have anything to do with how we conduct ourselves toward other nations and peoples -- as well as anyone who wants to see an entertaining but also educational film.