Coming soon to a theater near you…

4 Responses to Movie revivals — Crimson Kimono

1. Darrell Kunitomi says:

   September 19, 2008 at 5:50 pm

   I’m a strangely fascinating Japanese American man. At least I think so.
   My neighbor in Echo Park is a young director. He likes to call himself a filmmaker. We sometimes talk about Mr. Fuller. This movie, when I watched it many years ago on cable, grabbed me — it was just plain odd. I came to learn that Fuller’s work was grabby stuff. And often odd. Almost soap operaesque. Raw. Acty, but strangely realistic. Compelling and repelling at the same time. You had to watch; maybe not totally enjoy the experience, but Fuller always seemed to produce oddly watchable cinema. Maybe that’s life — all sorts of weirdness tossed together into a random salad, people you’re not comfortable with pressed too close to you, things you don’t want to see thrown into your line of vision, and left there. On first observation ‘Kimono’ seemed odd to me. And yet, it made me proud.
   You see, the Japanese American has seldom been portrayed in mainstream films. If we’re there, we’re stereotyped, partial people or just completely wrong. The good moments have been few.
   Go for Broke was true to the exploits of the famed 442nd RCT. Some real vets were in it. But the story was told through the experience of the white lead, Van Johnson. Sorta like Welcome to the Paradise, Dennis Quaid, lover of Tamlyn Tomita. Now, I know you need the star to bank the movie so don’t anyone take my beefs too seriously. I know the industry. In fact, forget I even mentioned it or complained. That’s very Japanese American. “Oh what a nice new car. It’s okay that it’s on my foot, really.” But there was handsome James Shigeta. In a damn lead role. With a great face and a voice like the finest fatty toro. That’s the sashimi that melts in your mouth, Anjin-san. I wish Shigeta’s career had exploded and endured like Sidney Poitier’s. They came up at about the same time. Shigeta’s opps never came close to Sidney’s. We got George Takei and Mr. Sulu. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
   I liked how ‘Kimono’s’ climactic scenes take place in the annual Nisei Week parade on 1st Street in Little Tokyo. About the real-life time that I would have been a little boy, in the middle of the great crowds when the festival attracted thousands, awed and fascinated by the strange music. The wailing voices. The language I couldn’t understand. And all the ondo groups, making their slow way down the street, a step forward, a step back, fans in hand, motions studied, ancient and perfect, colorful lanterns strung above, drums thumping from flatbed trucks. Daydreaming, staring at the cute little girls in their perfect kimonos, perfect make up, dancing so strangely right in front of me.
   It ain’t Chinatown, Jake, it’s Little Tokyo.
   There are folds in that kimono, hiding the secrets of the Orient. Here in Los Angeles, where the culture melts. After World War II.

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2. Karen Huie says:

   September 19, 2008 at 7:40 pm

   Succinct and terse pov of Japanese Americans in film. I never saw Crimson Kimono but I’m interested in seeing Sam Fuller’s take on JAs. I wonder if ‘strangely fascinating’ meant in an mysterious way or that it’s strange that a JA would be fascinating. It’s odd to still hear the occasional, ‘geez, why’s she dating him? It’s not like she can’t get a white guy’. Would that these attitudes could be part of a dated past we can now laugh at, like women being condemned for wanting a career’ or street kids snapping their fingers to ‘daddio’. I recently watched “Chinatown” again. It doesn’t seem like that old a film and yet, two of our respected Asian American actors–James Hong and the late Beulah Quo–were hollow maidservants. So were we more progressive in 1958 than we were in 1974? Wonder what 2009 will bring?

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3. Arye Michael Bender says:

   September 19, 2008 at 8:33 pm

   The full phrase used to be: “Coming soon, to a theater or drive-in near you.”
   Dylan is right. The times, they are a changin’.

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4. Darrell Kunitomi says:

   September 22, 2008 at 11:20 am

   Make that “Come See the Paradise.”
   Big impression on me.

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