Performance Review: Miyoshi Umeki in "Sayonara" (1957)

Twister does occasionally enjoy those big, important (sometimes dated) message movies. I am fond of kinds that are about "looking closer"at the world, discovering redemption and morals, and basically digging deeper and discovering something new, while possessing subtle, nuanced layers of meaning and understandings. Like some movies, whose message is almost entirely contrived, false, and flat out messy, Joshua Logan's Sayonara is not as bad as those, but its faults easily rise to the top. Even in this Hollywoodized, major studio picture there is feeling and truly humane emotion being projected from within, and its thanks to the preformers...one of which went on to win the Oscar for her work, a certain special somebody by the name of..

....Miyoshi Umeki in Sayonara (1957)

The film's plot begins when Major Lloyd Guever and his men of the US Air Force become stationed in Japan, and he's all prejudiced against the Japanese, then he dumps his white fiance for a beautiful Japanese performer, and yadah, yadah, yadah. Lets just say that the main and more showcased storyline is as dead as...dead, (and Marlon Brando's performance as the ace pilot...let's just say its not up there with Stanley Kowalski and Terry Malloy, as he puts on an obnoxious Southern drawl and never really connects with the character well), so I hold great appreciation for the paring of Miyoshi Umeki and Red Buttons who completley save the film.

Umeki's role as Red Buttons' wife Katsumi is simply intended to just be a device in the story, or rather a spot to be filled in the narrative. The movie doesn't look upon the character too highly at all, and as a result the screenplay hardly writes a role for the actor to play. Katsumi is introduced as Joe Kelly's War Bride, and although the air force forbids it, the two sweethearts get married when Joe gets stationed back in Japan. Now, Umeki is a Supporting Actress winner that gets put down alot more than she is praised and supported for her win/performance, and due to the limitations of the role I can understand. But what Miyoshi does with the role is she subtly elevates it to something beyond the scripted cut-out Katsumi was intended to be. Umeki is by turns sweet and affecting in the role -- and although he may be hard to see, her performance and her chemistry with Buttons is pretty much emotionally essential to the overall film. While Brando and the other "leads" are projecting almost nothing, it is Umeki and Buttons who are the two completely humane characters who actually act like humans with feeling and emotion. The two are the heart and soul of the film, and their quiet and loving affection for each other is radiantly palpable. On her own though, Umeki beautifully conveys shades of happiness, childlike glee, and all with a glowing heart. Most of the time (unfortunately) she doesn't speak much, so her expressive, angelic face perfectly projects nuanced feelings lingering below - will everything be alright? Is this too good to be true? Basically, Miyoshi infuses the role with a subtle emotional awareness but strong emotional clarity, and is completely authentic and just totally true. Her two big scenes really pack a haunting wallop; the first is when Joe finds out she was planning on getting her eyes operated on so she can look American, and she breaks down in tears and Umeki brilliantly conveys Katsumi's fears of what is happening with she and Joe; that she needs to put on a fake identity just to stay with Joe and to be accepted. Her line reading of "I want him to be proud of me..." is especially heartbreaking. Her second big scene comes when they are all watching the tragic puppet show and what they see is to become reality. Katsumi explains that the two lovers are dying in each others arms, but they will be together for eternity ("They will live in another world, on a beautiful lake…floating together always...like water lilies...") - here, Umeki reads the line in an almost poetic nature with tears in her eyes and her face projecting a haunting mix of saddness and joy.

Things get worse for the couple when the Air Force fights harder against them and eventually locks them out of their own home. Knowing that there is no way for them to live together in peace on this world, the two make an eternal and tragic choice -- they will both die together in a suicide pact, but will live on together in God's kingdom.

The last shot we see of Joe and Katsumi alive is so heartwrenching to me, as they walk down that dark alley together:

Then to see them lying dead together in bed is just devastating:

I'll fess up and say that I can be swayed by sentiment, and Joe and Katsumi's fate is set up in a manner as such, yet what makes these end scenes so powerful is the already strong foundation Umeki (and Buttons) had already laid down in a clear, unsentimental way. If they played their parts in a different register these scenes would not have worked at all. These were two people who were simply in love with each other and wanted to never let go of it, and the way they are vibrantly portrayed honestly reflect that.

From very nearly nothing, Miyoshi Umeki crafts a sweet, tragic, and haunting performance that's both remarkable for its authenticity as well as its emotional clarity/resonance on everlasting love and the truths that it bears...