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| Sayonara | 
 enlarge | Director: Joshua Logan
Actors: Marlon Brando, Ricardo Montalban, Patricia Owens, Red Buttons, Miiko Taka
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.98
Buy New: $3.98
You Save: $11.00 (73%)
New (54) Used (18) from $3.95
Avg. Customer Rating:  58 reviews
Sales Rank: 14868
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dvd-video, Letterboxed, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), French (Original Language), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Dubbed)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 147
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.1 x 0.6
MPN: MGMD1002384D
ISBN: 0792850920
UPC: 027616865953
EAN: 9780792850922
ASIN: B00005LOLD
Theatrical Release Date: 1957
Release Date: September 18, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: ******BRAND NEW****** ** Over 1.5 million orders shipped worldwide and more than 500 000 items in stock, BUY FROM A TRUSTED SOURCE, ESTABLISHED SINCE 1998 - INETVIDEO ~~~
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| Customer Reviews:
 Star-Crossed Lovers in Post-War Japan February 6, 2006
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Based on James Michener's best-selling novel, filmed and set in post-war Japan, this is an intimate character-driven story of miscegenation, racism, and the emerging relationship between America and Japan in the post-war era. Many of the customs explored here seem old-hat to us now, but were brand-new to Westerners back then: sushi, sake, kabuki theater etc.
Lovingly filmed in 50's Japan and starring an intense, accented Marlon Brando (playing a southern air force colonel from an old-line military family), the battle of accents reach epic proportions when Brando meets the great Japanese Kabuki star, played by none other than....Ricardo Montalban? That's some fine Japanese Corinthian leather!
Depite all that, this film unwinds beautifully and tragically, a serious exploration of important themes that, notwithstanding some dated elements, remains one of Brando's finest 50's efforts.
 WHETHER DEALING WITH ISSUES OR ROMANCE, "SAYONARA" IS ABOUT DOING THE RIGHT THING! January 15, 2006
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
IN A NUTSHELL: WHAT IS THE "RIGHT THING"?
After the plot slowly and gracefully illustrated its theme, I started imagining how easily resolved this race/love issue was going to be. However, I was wrong. The thickening of the plot, delivered through the plight of Red Buttons [Joe Kelly] and his wife Miyoshi Umeki [Katsumi] after their inter-racial marriage, only served to foreshadow what was in the cards for Gruver and Hana-ogi. This double whammy of dramatic romantic issues served to clarify that the pitfalls of racial bigotry in daily life, and the extraordinary romances that had evolved despite them, were nearly equally powerful forces. One, love and caring, brings people together whereas the other, hate and antagonism, tears them apart.
After the toll that "everyday life" eventually took on "the Kelly's", things looked rather grim for Gruver and Hana-ogi. Gruver's family standing (his dad was a 4 star General) and personal achievements (he was a famous fighter pilot "Ace") were actually held against him. Hana-ogi, too, has unfair family obligations and baggage which actually turn the couple's physical survival into a long shot. In the end, it all came down to the two protagonists, Marlon Brando as Major Lloyd Gruver and Miiko Taka as Hana-ogi, sorting out and prioritizing exactly what doing the right thing entailed for them. When they decided, Gruver simply said "SAYONARA" to reporters after the couple announced their plans.
ABOUT THE FILM: MAKE NO MISTAKE ABOUT IT, "SAYONARA" IS A HEAVYWEIGHT
This is a sneaky, dramatic powerhouse that uses Brando's terrible southern accent to have us think that this is not going to be a heavyweight film, as if his accent belies a light or cavalier approach to this film -- nothing could be further from the truth. Red Buttons won a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award as did his on-screen wife, Miyoshi Umeki. The film was, in fact, nominated for 10 Oscars, including "Best Actor" for Brando, "Best Director" for Joshua Logan, "Best Adapted Screenplay" for Paul Osborn and "Best Picture" to name just a few.
BOTTOM LINE: ONE OF THE VERY BEST FILMS THAT I DIDN'T SEE WHEN IT WAS ORIGINALLY RELEASED
This was one of those films that I don't recall seeing in the theatres, but I can't imagine why I would have missed it. Having said that, it was a pleasure to see it for the first time [that I recall] yesterday on video.
Sayonara September 7, 2005
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This potent, then-controversial drama about a romance between an American and an Asian during wartime was adapted from a novel by James Michener. Shot in Technicolor on location in Japan, the film is gorgeous to look at, and Brando's work is skillfully nuanced, as his character's outlook gradually evolves from intolerance to enlightenment through the love of a woman. Red Buttons, playing Brando's best friend, and Miyoshi Umeki as his lover won Oscars for their touching, heartfelt performances as the doomed couple.
Sayonara, some questions answered. August 12, 2005
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
Sayonara follows Air Force officer Lloyd (Marlon Brando) who is conveniently transferred from Korea to Kobe, Japan in hopes that he will wed a Generals daughter. Being unsure of his feelings on marriage, Lloyd soon becomes attracted to a famous dancer named Hana Ogi (Miko Tanaka) who has issues of her own. The other sub plot in the film involves Lloyds friend Kelly (Red Buttons) who faces prejudice and bullying from his commanding officer for marrying his frowned upon Japanese wife Katsumi (Miyoshi Umeki). Both Buttons and Umeki won best supporting actor and actress Oscars for this film.
Yes the film, despite being a love story, spends a lot of time exploring racism against the Japanese. As some reviewers have pointed out, the Japanese were also very racist. That fact is only touched on in one scene where Mr. Nakamura (the only real Japanese man shown in the film and played interestingly enough by a very young Ricado Montalban) mentions that some of his own countrymen are not too terribly enthusiastic about international relationships. Granted, in a film which tries to juggle the beauty of Japan, racism and a love story, there is hardly time to explore the Japanese view point. One does wonder how Red Buttons wife's parents reacted to their daughter Katsumi marrying an American? Had Marlon Brando's love interest Hana Ogi's family lived surely they would not have been pleased with her giving up her famous career to marry a foreigner. Sadly none of these things are examined and may have been a flaw in a film trying to combat such a serious issue.
Mika Tanaka who portrays Brando's girlfriend was actually an American born into a wealthy Japanese family from Washington State. That's why her command of English is so good. Her character of Hana Ogi is a famous dancer in the Matsubayashi Girls dancing troupe. She explains to Brando in one heartfelt scene that she owes her life to the troupe and that her responsibility is to grow old and become a teacher for future dancers. There were no actual "Matsubayashi Girls" but the film invents the troupe as a serious, harshly governed, traditional group of girls who ironically perform Las Vegas style shows.Such dancers doing modern style dances for American G.I.'s were no doubt plentiful in post war Japan. However these girls came from a much less structured and governed group unlike the film would have you believe. In other words, the Geisha didn't go running off and put on tap shoes. The film's credits list the Matsubayahi girls as played by the Shochiku Comany dancers. Shochiku is still a well known movie company today but their days of promoting dancers, if in fact they ever did, are long since gone. I have reason to suspect that they were created just for this film.
The film is shot in Itami City,Kyoto, Kobe, Osaka, Ise and Tokyo. One of my favorite scenes is Marlon Brando on the beach in Ise, admiring the "wedding rocks" while James Garner waits behind him in a jeep.........a good 100 km away in Arashiyama!
Most modern Japanese have never heard of the film Sayonara. The small group of Japanese adults that I know who did watch this film to were surprised and embarrassed by the level of servitude that Katsumi gave to Red Buttons. They also laughed at the fact that most of the Japanese women in the film adopted a very flat accent which was very typical of old T.V. dramas at the time.Like many movies of their time shot in Japan, Americans are portrayed with the "how could anyone not love us"? attitude.
The original 1957 movie program (Japanese) does mention that there was another ending to the film or rather, the ending was left out. In Japan, it seems, the last 5 minutes of the film wasn't shown in Japan. Weather it was cut, or another scene was shot later for American audiences, the program doesn't say. If there are other versions, they weren't shown in Japan.
One final note, which is probably THE SADDEST of all concerns Miyoshi Umeki who won a best supporting actress for this film. She started her career as a singer and changed her name briefly to Nancy Umeki before being hired for Sayonara. After winning the Oscar, she moved to the U.S. and did many bit parts in movies and t.v. Most people might remember her in the U.S. playing Mrs. Livingston opposite Bill Bixby in the short lived T.V. drama "The Courtship of Eddies Father". Despite being the first Asian and the first Japanese to win an Oscar, she is virtually unknown in Japan. One would think that in Japan they would celebrate such an honored person but sadly the old generation barely remembers her and the new one has never heard of her. Oscar shows in Japan, at lest the last 10 years that I have watched, have never mentioned her. Miyoshi died in August of 2007 and there was very little about her death in Japan.
Superior soap opera July 3, 2005
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
Sayonara has all the problems of 50s Scope blockbuster doorstop novel adaptations and Joshua Logan films both - slow pacing not the least of them - but still works despite it taking nearly an hour for the lovers to meet. But for once the soap operatics seem to be there to support the film's surprisingly daring criticism of the US Army's racist policies rather than its sole raison d'etre, and it's hard to imagine a major studio today making a mainstream big-budget picture with A-list stars about, say, American troops falling for nice Islamic girls. Brando is at his worst here, clearly bored with the part he plays up the Southern stereotype to such a simple downhome cliche that he comes across more like Steve Martin as the Jerk doing Elvis rather than a successful West Point career officer, but a strong supporting cast - an understated Red Buttons (unjustly slated by Pauline Kael for some reason), James Garner and Kent Smith - take up the slack, and MGM/UA's DVD is such a stunningly beautiful transfer that it's easy to get sucked into it. Shame about the impromptu press conference ending and Ricardo Montalban's ah-so turn as the world's tallest Kabuki actor.
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