The Teahouse of the August Moon

Comedy shot entirely on location on Okinawa, but it is still first and foremost a Hollywood film: a film with a star (Marlon Brando) and based on a successful book and Broadway play (by John Patrick). Entirely in the spirit of his actors’ studio background, Brando spent months learning a perfect command of specifically Asian movements. But the layers of make-up and the studied method walks cannot hide the fact that the interpreter and guide Sakini is just Marlon Brando (which is of course really the intention). The story is set in 1944. American troops on Okinawa have been ordered to teach the islanders civilisation and democracy. The remote village Tobiki has been assigned to army captain Fisby. Fisby does not have a very good reputation as a soldier and his order is really a kind of banishment. His choice of the hard- boiled guide Sakini to help him is also not a happy one. Fisby’s intention to have a school built is changed by Sakini and the inhabitants into a tea house that soon becomes a flourishing business thanks to the loving geishas. When the inhabitants also find out there is a demand for their own home distilled alcohol, things really get out of hand. The exploitation of the couleur locale in this effusive Japonaiserie sometimes approaches operetta, but the good humour with which American feelings of superiority are put into perspective makes up for a lot. GjZ