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An ambitious, visually polished 1950s melodrama with a genuinely unusual anti-racist stance for its era, but it is also weighed down by paternalism, cultural stereotyping, and a stately, overlong style that can feel dated now.
Where to watch: Buy
Wed · 2h 27m
Director: Joshua Logan
Starring: Marlon Brando, Patricia Owens, James Garner
Air Force Major Lloyd Gruver is reassigned to a Japanese air base and is confronted with US racial prejudice against the Japanese people. The issue is compounded because a number of the soldiers become romantically involved with Japanese women, in defiance of US military policy. Ordinarily, a by-the-book officer, Gruver must take a position when a buddy of his, an enlisted man, Joe Kelly, falls in love with a Japanese woman, Katsumi, and marries her. Gruver risks his position by serving as best man at the wedding ceremony.
Joshua Logan
Marlon Brando, Patricia Owens, James Garner
An ambitious, visually polished 1950s melodrama with a genuinely unusual anti-racist stance for its era, but it is also weighed down by paternalism, cultural stereotyping, and a stately, overlong style that can feel dated now.
Sayonara is one of those studio-era films that feels both progressive and compromised at the same time. It takes a surprisingly direct stand against anti-Japanese prejudice and military racism, and for a 1957 Hollywood production that matters. The romance and the social conflict are framed with real sincerity, even if the film’s worldview remains very much filtered through a white American protagonist.
What makes it endure is the scale: the color, the Japanese locations, the melodramatic sweep, and the sense that the movie is trying to say something bigger than its own love story. It can be lumbering, and some performances and cultural depictions now read as dated or patronizing. But the film’s earnestness and visual polish still give it a certain force.
If you come to it as a historical artifact, it’s fascinating; if you come to it expecting a fully modern drama, it will likely frustrate you. The strongest material is the tension between genuine empathy and the limitations of 1950s Hollywood, which makes it more interesting than simply “good” or “bad.”
Xfaxe (2.5★) · 196 likes
I thought I was in for a great Marlon Brando performance. Instead I got a movie that has aged very bad and just felt stale…
vincemale (2.5★) · 168 likes
Soooooooooo . . . racist? Sayonara points out the racism inherent in the attitudes of the military and the people who partake of those institutions (pro); but every aspect of Japanese culture portrayed is all lotus blossoms and tea ceremonies (con). Ricardo Montalban portrays a Japanese kabuki performer (con); but the portrayal is about a 3 on the offensiveness scale (pro). For the record, Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany's rates a 10. It bases its view of Japan as… more
Josh Gillam (4★) · 113 likes
On release, Sayonara proved pioneering in the way it addressed interracial relationships, exploring the romance between an American major (Marlon Brando) and the Japanese woman he meets (Miiko Taka) while stationed in the country. This is told with a progressive attitude that has by and large held up, the story filled with enormous amounts of empathy for these disenfranchised people going through the cruel (and sadly wide-spread) prejudices of that time. Brando’s audience surrogate acts as our portal into post-war Japan,… more
threepenny (2★) · 62 likes
After watching Sayonara I have a new appreciation for when Bogart said, "I can't hear their words. I miss the cues. This scratch-your-ass-and-mumble school of acting doesn't please me." After 10 minutes of incomprehensible mumbling from Brando, I finally had to turn on subtitles and try again. Worse than the mumbling is that every line is drawled out, with long pauses. I got exhausted watching him do his schtick. So much wasted time. It's a shame because there's a lot
tosin (4★) · 40 likes
kelly, you never had to go that route if we’re being serious. 🙁
A nearby studio-era Japan-set comedy-drama that also reveals Hollywood’s midcentury ideas about cross-cultural contact, for better and worse.
Another prestige 1950s production about military authority, imperial settings, and the moral strain of war-era institutions.
Shares the military backdrop, romantic entanglements, and classic Hollywood seriousness about duty versus desire.
A similarly era-bound romance shaped by exoticism and cross-cultural attraction, useful as a companion piece for comparison.
A sweeping postwar melodrama about Westerners in Asia, with the same blend of sincerity, sentiment, and dated cultural framing.
A major studio musical that directly engages with racism, interracial desire, and Pacific theater settings.
For viewers interested in classic Hollywood’s lavish, problematic approach to Asian settings and cultural exchange.
Another Joshua Logan film that pairs romantic turbulence with a strong sense of midcentury melodramatic staging.
A glossy studio drama about image, desire, and performance, with the same era’s polished emotional register.
A lush romantic melodrama from the same period, ideal if what you want is emotional sweep and old-school craftsmanship.
A melodramatic romance shaped by cultural difference and the studio era’s sentimental treatment of cross-cultural love.
A reflective postwar drama about dislocation and moral searching, with an interest in Asia and Western self-reckoning.
interracial romance, racial prejudice, postwar Japan, U.S. military culture, cultural misunderstanding, melodrama, forbidden love, colonial gaze
classic hollywood, 1950s, melodrama, romance, racial prejudice, postwar japan, military drama, technicolor, cross-cultural conflict, prestige drama