Au rythme des tambours fleuris

I am from San Francisco, and while not of Asian descent, I am familiar with the cultural difficulties of "East vs West" -- and every time I see this movie, I am impressed with how this is handled. Ok, granted, it's a fluff-and-sparkle R&H songfest, and not one of their best or most famous, but it does have some good commentary - as when the younger brother pops in and out with his completely modern slang...with the more common "generation gap" themes running rampant at this time (early 60's), it's even more interesting...and, as I say, I lived in SF very near Chinatown - it "feels" right, even tho it's an entirely fake set. Don't dismiss it out of hand - it's no "Joy Luck Club" or "Double Happiness" but it's not bad, either.

A groundbreaking and charming film. It doesn't reach quite as high as maybe it could have and it's got a few flaws, but it was enormous step forward at the time, and it's entertaining besides. The cast has a lot of underrated star power (Nancy Kwan and James Shigeta), there are some really nice musical numbers, and the heart of this film is in the right place, treating Asian-Americans as people for a change.

The main message of this film is pretty loud and clear to me - Asian-Americans are just as American as anyone else - and this is where the film truly shines. Quite a bit of it deals with the gap between older and younger generations, and could have been applied to any immigrant culture. We see the kids spouting slang, playing baseball, and dressed up as Revolutionary War figures for a parade. In one number we see the electric Nancy Kwan singing not in some exotic getup or about some Chinese-specific theme, but simply "I Enjoy Being a Girl" in front of three mirrors ala Marilyn Monroe or Bridget Bardot. Jack Soo is a nightclub owner and as smooth as Dean Martin, and suave leading man James Shigeta reminded me of Peter Lawford. None of them speak with an awful accent or in caricature, and one of the nice moments early on shows that people on the streets of Chinatown don't necessarily know how to read Chinese. The story that has three women (Reiko Sato is the third) romantically interested in the two men is a little silly, but it's similar to others in this genre, it's pretty damn nice to see the male characters not emasculated and the open kissing. Quite a bit of the film is universal.

It's a little hit and miss in the musical numbers, but there are several standouts:

• The three kids dancing and singing in "The Other Generation" - absolutely adorable.
• Nancy Kwan in her lingerie and beautiful outfits in "I Enjoy Being a Girl" - hello, and she's fantastic throughout.
• The ensemble cast breaking out into vibrant American dancing towards the end of "Chop Suey" - very cool and so joyful.
• Reiko Sato in "Love Look Away," which includes some dreamy and ethereal effects - simply gorgeous.

There are also some nice little visual touches, such as the different mirrors reflecting different things in "I Enjoy Being a Girl," and black and white cowboy and Indian characters coming out of a TV to run around in "Sunday." The latter are played by Asian-Americans and there's a lot to unpack there, but suffice to say it's a little unfortunate this bit wasn't based on some other traditional/classic American movie type.

Where the film fails a bit is in its depiction of Chinese customs, which is maybe not surprising given the Western writers/composers and the fact that this was playing to a 1961 audience, but a little disappointing nonetheless. The 'flower drum song' ("A Hundred Million Miracles") is unengaging musically and inauthentic culturally, and watching the first performance in the Celestial Gardens nightclub is like eating a highly westernized version of Chinese food. While most of the characters are far from stereotypical and quite refreshing, the young woman from China (Miyoshi Umeki) is too subservient, particularly when she finds herself being paired up with the nightclub owner and more than willing to accept all of his flaws. Her character and her musical performances were my least favorite part of the film, though even she has a nice little moment imitating Soo at the end of "Don't Marry Me."

Overall though, this is a fine film, even touching on humanizing illegal immigration. You can count films from Hollywood with such Asian representation on one hand over the years, and unless I'm forgetting one, the next wouldn't be for over three decades (The Joy Luck Club (1993)). It's a shame that Anna May Wong died earlier in the year at just 56, and couldn't play the part of the aunt/sister-in-law as planned, or even see the film - I'm sure she would have loved it.

As a Japanese-American raised in the 1960's, I always had mixed feelings about the 1961 film version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Chinese-American musical comedy. Although it was refreshing to see so many Asian faces in a mainstream studio movie (granted several Japanese-American actors in Chinese roles), the portrayals always struck me as trite and catering to pre-existing stereotypes. Now that it has finally come out on DVD forty-five years after its initial release, I can appreciate it much more without raising my eyebrows as much, perhaps because it now seems so much a nostalgic product of Eisenhower-era sensibilities. Another reason is that the DVD contains a pristine print that balances the saturated use of color throughout. Moreover, there is the music, which while not grade-A material from the legendary team, has enough of their recognizably melodious style to make the whole affair quite entertaining now.

Set in San Francisco's Chinatown in the late 1950's, the soufflé-light story, written by Joseph Fields, is a family-oriented, musical-chairs romantic comedy focused on East-West cultural differences primarily in the well-to-do Wang household headed by the ultra-traditional Master Wang. It starts with pretty Mei Li, who has stowed away on a Chinese steamer with her professor father to become a mail-order bride for nightclub owner Sammy Fong. En route, they end up staying in the Wang home where she develops a crush on eldest son Wang Ta. But he is infatuated with saucy showgirl Linda Low, who is intent on making Sammy jealous enough for him to propose after five years of non-commitment. Wang Ta and Linda turn out to be a mismatch, which would be good news if only Mei Li's marriage contract were not so binding. If that situation is not complicated enough, dressmaker Helen Chao has a lifelong crush on Wang Ta as well.

An all-Asian cast was assembled, a rarity in itself back then, and it helps that most perform within the constraints of the movie quite well. Looking like a porcelain doll brought to life, Miyoshi Umeki lends her uniquely plaintive quality to the role of Mei Li, and she sings with quiet clarity on her trademark song, "A Hundred Million Miracles". As Wang Ta, James Shigeta, also a pleasant singer, is sincere with the matinée idol looks to match, although his naïve character seems excessively dim when it comes to women. Both, however, are overshadowed by the shenanigans provided by Nancy Kwan, at her pin-up cutie peak, as Linda, and Jack Soo in full Dean Martin mode as the cynical Sammy. Even though their stormy relationship seems to be lifted completely from Nathan and Adelaide's in "Guys and Dolls", they provide the lion's share of the entertainment with the domestic fantasy, "Sunday" a particular highlight.

While dubbed, Kwan performs the boudoir classic, "I Enjoy Being a Girl", with sexy flair, and she dances with graceful exuberance on "Fan Tan Fannie" and especially on "Grand Avenue" with a virtual battalion of dancers. Benson Fong, who memorably played Charlie Chan's #3 son in his youth, brings the necessary bluster to Master Wang, while Juanita Hall, Bloody Mary from "South Pacific", stays mainly on the sidelines as the understanding Auntie Liang except when she solos on "Chop Suey". Of the supporting cast, two performers stand out - teenaged Patrick Adiarte dancing energetically as younger son Wang Tan, and as the lovelorn Helen, Reiko Sato leads a stunning ballet on the show's best song, "Love, Look Away" (her voice is dubbed by legendary soprano Marilyn Horne). The opening credits showcase a series of striking watercolor paintings from artist Dong Kingman, and Russell Metty's richly colorful cinematography can finally be appreciated with the DVD.

The 2006 DVD extras are generous starting with a solid commentary track from Kwan and British film historian Nick Redman. Even though Kwan sometimes gets derailed by her life story, she and Redman partner well in bringing out intriguing aspects of the production and cast. There are five featurettes which feel like components of one feature-length documentary since the same participants show up in all five. The first one talks about the story's transition from the original novel by C.Y. Lee to the Broadway musical directed by Gene Kelly to the 1961 movie to the 2002 Broadway revival developed by David Henry Hwang. The other shorts focus on the casting, the score, sets and costumes, and a more personal look at Rodgers and Hammerstein. It's interesting how veteran filmmaker Henry Koster is barely mentioned since he directed the film, though his pedestrian direction is truly the least impressive part of the movie.

Speaking for myself, I have been a huge fan of FDS since the '70s when I bought the soundtrack album (on Decca) at a used record store for $7. I saw it on TV one new years day i think 1980 and it's been one of my favorites ever since. Not only is it one of R and H's best scores, Alfred Newman's arrangements are simply lush and beautiful. The cast and the director are all top notch. The screen play is delightful, perhaps a bit long, but rather too long than eliminate one of the great songs, some of which were already edited down from the original Broadway version which was directed by the great Gene Kelly. I have often wondered what would have happened if he had directed the movie. On stage, I do like the full two versions of The Other Generation, for example.

My wife is from the Peoples Rep. of China. Shes 28 and has been in the USA for 15 months as of this writing. I was going through my stuff recently in storage and came across of my heavily yellowed copy of CY Lee's novel FDS and thought my wife would enjoy it. She did. So i thought well now it's time to break out my old VHS copy which i hadn't seen since 1990. it was playable but storage hasn't been very kind to it. C'Mon DVD!!!

Her final comment was "cute". Benson Fong's Mr. Wang reminded her of her own father. Even though my wonderful father in law is a hard line communist, I see the obvious paternal, controlling similarities between them. He made her very nostalgic for her home land and her family. If we ever have any sons, he will probably be like Wang San in many ways and she could see the old man's reaction to his youngest son's could be very similar between her father and our son yet to be conceived.

What she thought was laughably bad was "A Hundred Million Miracles" trying to be passed off as a real flower drum song. She said, "if they sung that in China as a flower drum song they would have been stoned to death." She almost lost interest in the movie at that point especially since the movie and original play deviate from the novel at that point. So she didn't buy that at all. Sammy Fong's lecherous behavior was also realistic for a Chinese businessman. My wife related to that too.

She didn't buy some of the costuming especially young women wearing hats. Married women wore hats in the '50s but Mei Li apparently wouldn't.

Speaking of Mei Li, she totally bought her character both in the book and the movie. Very realistic portrayal and Miyoshi looked like a typical peasant girl albeit Miyoshi is Japanese not Chinese and that was evident immediately.

Linda Low, though not a big part of the novel, if at all, (I have forgotten if that character appears in it), was another realistic character, even today in 2006!! She reminded both us of, well... shall we say... materialistic girls you could meet everyday in Shanghai, the ones that unsuspecting foreigners need to be careful of. In any event, Nancy Kwan has another fan in my wife. We have a copy of Suzie Wong - book and movie - in China.

For myself, it was interesting seeing the movie after having lived three years in the PRC and what an admirable job the creators of the movie did in keeping with the culture. They missed a few things obviously, but for two Jewish boys from NYC, R and H as well as Joseph Fields libretto did an awesome job of keeping it real, much more so here than with the King and I which both play and movie are banned forever in Thailand because the Thai people find it so offensive.

As far as David Hwang's remake of FDS goes, I really can't comment on it because I haven't read it or seen it. I don't know if I really want to although I am curious just because I have been a supporter of FDS for so many years. If the idea for the remake is to resemble the novel more, than I am all for it. I love the novel and I think the original play and movie missed opportunities for beefing up the Helen Chao character better. She just kinds of disappears with no mention of her suicide after the hauntingly beautiful "Love Look Away" a show stopper if there ever was one. That is a flaw.

I just love Sammy Fong. How can you have FDS without Sammy Fong? He is just so sleazy and brilliant and wonderful invention by the creative team. How can you do FDS without 'the other generation" in any version. That's the whole point of the both the novel and the original play as well as the movie - the generation gap and the cultural gap. In portraying that, FDS, the original play and movie, succeed on pretty much every level If the idea to create a new version of FDS was because the movie and play portrayed negative stereotypes, my wife who is Chinese has to disagree. She loves the characters in this movie; in many ways, they brought China to life for her and what it is like living in a totally new culture, not understanding anything at all, or in her case thinking you know a foreign culture because you have worked with foreigners and finding it's completely different over here.

Kudos and thank you to RandH, Ross Hunter and his team in creating a movie that has aged so gracefully, (as has Ms. Kwan) for the most part, and making serious cultural and generational issues that will probably never go away fun. This movie will be current in 100 years.

The last time I saw Flower Drum Song on a big screen was at the Asian Pacific American Studies event at New York University, spurred on by David Henry Hwang's Broadway revival which received favorable reviews except for one paper. I was invited because my father created the film titles. Socialogical connotations at the event were discussed: cultural and generational conflicts, old and new set in the City on Golden Hill, the quest to achieve, etc. I have seen the original musical, the film many times, and the revival which deserved a longer run. Then the film began. I was impressed by Nancy Kwan's acting and others, memorable musical numbers and the opening and closing title paintings by my father, Dong Kingman. In many ways a beautiful film, and a case can be made, a pioneering one. Okay so it is a bit corny, a few young members of audience uneasily snickered at the stereotypes, scenes could have been cut, especially one fantasy sequence. Yet the Flower Drum Song endures and to enjoy. Rating is 7 1/2, plus half star more for dad.