"Socks up, boss!"

Title: The Teahouse of the August Moon (1956)
Director: Daniel Mann
Producer: Jack Cummings
Writer: John Patrick
Starring: Marlon Brando, Glenn Ford, Machiko Kyo, Paul Ford
Genre: Comedy, Satire
Distributor: MGM


This film was shown by TCM last night. It was part of their month long special, "Race and Hollywood: Asian Images in Film", which airs every Tuesday and Thursday night. The few films that I've been able to catch have been enjoyable, this one in particular being a stand-out.

The film is a satire of America and its opinion that it is their responsibility to change the world over to the great world of democracy. One year after World War II, Captain Fisby (Glenn Ford) is ordered to report to a village called Tobiki in the Okinawa Prefecture. Fisby has the pleasure of having a local named Sakini (Marlon Brando) join him as interpreter. Fisby is ordered to follow "Plan B" which deals with establishing different types of groups within the village that will promote democracy and, most importantly, building a schoolhouse in the shape of the Pentagon. Instead, Fisby becomes very fond of the way the locals do things and starts to follow in their footsteps in terms of style of dress and their daily rituals and practices. Instead of a schoolhouse, the people want to build a Teahouse for their village. Fisby can't refuse the idea of the Teahouse, and soon enough has to deal with his superiors because of not following orders...


This film is very interesting to watch, being that it is an old Hollywood film from the 50's dealing with a subject matter as such. The casting of Marlon Brando immediately raises an eyebrow for anyone. I've read that both critics and film historians regard the casting of Brando as one of the worst moves in cinema, but I am not the only one who begs to differ. Everyone is aware of how great an actor the man is, and being that he is usually seen in dramas such as A Streetcar Named Desire(1951), On The Waterfront(1954), seeing him act in a comedy is a real treat for anyone who loves the cinema. Furthermore, we get to see him all done up in makeup, playing the role of an Asian man! Brando actually spent two months studying culture, speech, and gestures of Okinawa. Of course, one might think it wasn't the best choice to choose Brando over an actual Asian for the role, but for whatever reason, that was the decision made and it doesn't take anything away from the film. It's really funny and enjoyable to watch Brando as he appears in the beginning of the film, talking to the audience and introducing the story that is about to unfold on the screen. Right away, I could tell that Brando's method acting techniques were being put to great use, watching his hand motions and way of speaking.

An interesting thing about this film is the way it can be interpreted in terms of race. As I've already mentioned, the film is a satire on America and their ideas about spreading democracy throughout the East. This is definitely true. In the beginning, Glenn Ford's character is portrayed in a way that makes him come off as foolish and ignorant, almost child-like. Over the course of his stay, he begins to understand what it means to be a villager of Okinawa, and only then does he show signs of an adult male who takes pride in his own ideas and morals. On the other hand, there is the point that was brought up by co-host, Film Historian Dr. Peter X. Feng, following the film. Feng mentioned that while the film does in fact work as a film poking fun at America, it also pokes some fun at the Asians. It can be suggested that the film helps in portraying the Asian people as people who are unable to modernize like the Americans have. When Captain Fisby tries to come up with ideas for items that can be sold to Westerners as souvenirs in order to make money for the village, the only thing he is given to work with are cricket cages made of wood, chopsticks, and hand-made tea cups. A villager later returns to tell the captain that the westerners were not interested in any of the things he had to offer. When the villager told the man how the cups were hand-made, the man responded with something along the lines of, "So what? Why would I want these when we can have 10 cups per minute made back at home?!"

Some of the scenes in the film are really great to watch, and they show up right from the beginning. From all the reviews that I've read on IMDB, it seems that The Teahouse of the August Moon is one of those great films where it pays off to watch it numerous times. Supposedly it gets funnier and more memorable with each viewing. I made sure to keep it on the DVR.