Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Flower Drum Song

Continuing on, as with the previous film, I had heard the title of this song, but never seen the film. In fact, after watching the film I had never even heard most of the songs, though I think I may have heard the song "The Other Generation" once or twice. The song, "Love, Look Away" is excellent and I am surprised it hasn't gotten more attention.

One odd thing about the film is that 3 of the four stars are Japanese (well two Japanese American and one from Japan) playing a Chinese character roll with the other actress being the half Chinese and half Scottish Nancy Kwan, who has immeasurable appeal in this film, and perhaps all her films.

I was very impressed to see the "typical" life of Chinese American's speaking without accents. And even more impressed for them to included a Chinese character who had just arrived, speaking with an accent. The film didn't give in to the preconception that all Asians (and Asian Americans) speak with an accent, nor did to attempt to completely erase that fact that some do. This seems like and extremely enlightened view for the time this film was made and it's surprising that even in current times some non Asians retain this faulty preconception.

The film is colorful and enjoyable, though some what lacking in memorable songs. Also, felt the Mei Li was not particularly interesting, nor did I see any motivation for the romance between the two main characters.

No comments:

Post a Comment