Great movies can come from the most unexpected places. Take Teahouse of the August Moon, a 1956 film adaptation of the 1953 Pulitzer Prize-winning comedic play of the same name in which Marlon Brando plays a Japanese man during the American occupation of Okinawa. Red flags immediately soar. I wouldn’t have watched it (I saw Brando play Mexican in Viva Zapata!) except that it is part of a Marlon Brando DVD set I am currently working through. Terrifying specters of Mickey Rooney’s Japanese landlord in Breakfast at Tiffany’s warned me away.
But I may never have been so wonderfully surprised!
Yes, you could never cast a Caucasian movie star in a Japanese role today, but in the fifties, Brando spearheaded the movie’s creation after seeing the play, and his name made things happen. What is more important is that all the other Okinawans (who vastly outnumber the Americans) are played by Japanese actors. The movie was filmed in Nara, Japan with a crew from both countries and required twelve interpreters. The lead actress was big Japanese star Machiko Kyō (Rashomon, Ugetsu, Gate of Hell), and the film is a lighthearted but decisive skewering of colonialism. In 1956, any one of these facts would have been revolutionary!
Brando spent two months with a real interpreter to learn the specific accent of Okinawa and the proper pronunciation of his lines, which are half in Japanese. His makeup is much more natural and respectful than Rooney’s, as well, and he sheds every noticeable mannerism of Marlon Brando and nails the local physicality. I dare say, if the credits were withheld from someone, they might not even realize that he is not a Japanese actor. It is an excellent performance.
The film is charming, endlessly inventive in its many forms of humor, and truly moving. The Okinawans let the Americans believe that they are running the show while they leverage their presence to better their life in the ways which they actually desire betterment. It isn’t long before a real partnership forms between the two American officers (Glenn Ford and Eddie Albert) stationed in the village, Brando’s shrewd interpreter, the imported Geisha, and the people of the town. After a transitional time, during which each group’s different agenda causes delightful chaos, they become a real community, using each member’s abilities and privileges to build the titular teahouse and thereby transform their poor village into a destination for Americans and Okinawans alike.
Out of the most discouraging circumstances, this film emerged as an empathetic, culturally aware, and wonderfully written pleasure that brought real humor and real pathos to a story ahead of its time!