樱花恋

新一任美国总统特朗普走马上任了，尽管他是人民投票选出来的总统，但街头仍有异议者示威游行。人群的意见无法统一，只能按照规则，服从多数人的选择。好莱坞一向瞧不起特朗普，总借机嘲讽人家，这次上街的过气好莱坞老鸟，包括雪儿、罗伯特·德尼罗、麦当娜等人又在那说三道四、狂爆粗口，我相信他们代表不了、也影响不了美国的大多数普通人，有些越俎代庖、自不量力。

地球另一边的日本首相安倍晋三曾经抱错了大腿，把宝押在了希拉里的身上，等大选结果出炉后才惊慌失措，连忙跑到美国去见新主子特朗普，求他宽恕自己的无知，对日本好一些，结果人家随后就彻底否决了TPP，打了安倍一个大嘴巴子。

日本和美国的同盟关系是否要发生变故不得而知，但特朗普有意向日本收取更多的“保护费”却是事实，但此意向已经被日本否决，说不能给美国更多的钱了。咱们骑驴看账本--走着瞧吧，新的戏码已经开始。

书归正传，《樱花恋》是一部很早的彩色电影，时长大约两个半小时，在当时自然造价不菲。电影里面展现的是韩战时期，也是美日媾和初期发生的一支小插曲。风流成性的美国大兵去任何地方都会发生一连串桃色事件，日本也不例外，至今在冲绳基地的美国大兵还经常奸污当地的女性，让冲绳人深恶痛绝，老百姓多次向政府抗议，但日本首相都不敢跟美国主子翻脸，只能忍气吞声。

风华正茂的马龙·白兰度演的飞行员和长官的女儿谈恋爱，长官就走后门把他从韩国的战场上调到了和平的日本基地来。

白兰度的机械师爱上了一个日本女人，但这在美军里是不允许的。他求助于白兰度向长官说情、并为他证婚。白兰度起初不理解，但还是应允了。

不久白兰度和官小姐的恋情起了波澜，官小姐迷恋日本文化，竟爱上了一个男优，不理白兰度了。

白兰度寂寞之余，经常去机械师家里做客，发现他的日本老婆虽然长得不咋地，但却把丈夫当作帝王般伺候，毕恭毕敬，简直是极品！她跪着给丈夫洗澡，勤恳地操持家务，像小蜜蜂一样围着丈夫转，毫无怨言！我看到如此贤惠的女人，也差点感动得流泪。现在的大小屏幕上充斥着野蛮女友、男人婆、女汉子、拉拉，都快让我忘记女人曾经的模样了。

白兰度看到自己的朋友过着天堂一样的生活，也对日本女人产生了迷恋，一次异彩纷呈的演出中，一个歌舞团的头牌明星换着各种华丽的衣服唱歌跳舞，有古典的，有现代的，有大腿舞，也有爵士舞，看得白兰度眼花缭乱、心神荡漾，他马上就爱上了这个女明星。本片的歌舞片段五光十色，让人非常享受，还加入了几段日本传统戏剧，有一种异样的美感和猎奇感。



白兰度疯狂追求女明星，终于得偿所愿，但长官却不愿意了，因为白兰度已经不可能是他的姑爷，也就不能享受优待了。所以长官安排他和机械师马上离开日本，返回韩国战场。机械师的爱人此时已经怀孕，想到就要被迫分离，两人无法接受，于是自杀身亡，死在了温柔乡。

此事引起了不大不小的社会影响，随后美国政府发出指示，不再禁止美国大兵和日本女人的婚恋。白兰度和女明星的爱情逃出生天，终成圆满。

本片导演乔舒亚·洛根 Joshua Logan我很喜欢，他的《野餐》我认为是被低估的杰作。他导演的经典音乐剧《南太平洋》也拍的非常美、非常大气，让人难忘，绝对是旷世经典。有时间再详细介绍吧。

《樱花恋》在当年的奥斯卡得到很多提名，但最终得了四个大奖。最佳音响效果、最佳艺术指导是表彰其中精彩的歌舞片段的，最佳男女配角是那对殉情恋人的扮演者获得的。看来这段直男癌的恋情感动了大多数评委，让他们也毫不犹豫地把票投给了这对死了也值得的恋人！

日本娘们儿真的有这么好么？我不由叹了一口气。

if there was a Chinese version like this, might not be so much misunderstanding....

A grade-A studio star vehicle for a prime Marlon Brando, Joshua Logan’s SAYONARA, complying with USA’s post-war rapprochement with Japan and Hollywood’s far-flung endeavor to marry oriental exotica with its tried-and-tested production formula, charts a defiant inter-racial romance with appeal, earnest and poignancy, but not without its ingrained stereotype of a disparate culture, also compounded by a pernicious double standard.

During the ongoing Korean War, ace fighter pilot Major Lloyd Gruver (Brando), the son of an army general and the pin-up boy of the USA air force, is seconded to the peaceful Japanese town Kobe to reunite with his fiancée Eileen (Owens), strings are pulled by her father Lt. Gen. Mark Webster (Smith). One of Lloyd’s airmen, Joe Kelly (Buttons) is hellbent on marrying an indigenous woman Katsumi (Umeki) at any cost, and Lloyd, although does not approve of his rash decision, acquiesces to be his best friend. Little does him know, himself will be enamored of Hana-ogi (Taka), the top-line trouper of Shochiku Kagekidan Girls Revue (an all female music theater troupe), and must overcome both USA military’s racist policy and suppression, and Hano-ogi’s lofty commitment to the Revue, which excludes matrimony for its performers, to get the girl, all coincides with the fortuitous passing of the law for inter-racial marriage, but for the low-ranking Kelly, his state of affairs will not be that rosy.

Earning 10 Oscar nominations and winning 4, including two for its supporting players Red Button and Miyoshi Umeki (a very first and still one-and-the-only win for any acting performer of Far Asian extraction), SAYONARA is conduced to introduce Japanese culture to any foreign eyes, Kabuki, Shochiku Revue, puppet theater (foreshadowing the tragic coda for Kelly and Katsumi), by turns, is presented to offer an absorbing but superficial overview, but ultimately, what is irresistible for Lloyd is the propaganda of a courteous, biddable wife who treats her husband like the master of her universe, risibly if slightly offensively embodied by an unfeigned, impish Umeki, her performance doesn’t live up to the hype of Oscar caliber, as the characterization of Katsumi never surpasses kin-deep tentativeness. Red Buttons has a bit more to enact as the pertinacious Kelly, sets an intrepid precedent for Lloyd to emulate his own fight for love.

Lloyd’s two girls are opposite forces, Patricia Owens’ Eileen, cannot be sated as a traditional army wife if Lloyd is not the right one for her, and her own rapport with a Kabuki star Nakamura (Montalban) is only briefly depicted, and it is not helped by the problematic double standard of casting the Mexican Montalban with artificial slanted eyes in the role, as if implying a racist undertone, which feels excruciatingly and conspicuously grating along with the Brando-Taka pair. An unsung Miiko Taka has a daunting job to achieve as the one who is designed to encompass all the virtues of a nubile Japanese woman from a westerner’s eyes, she must possess poise, elegance, passion and fidelity, vulnerable on the outside, but steely-minded when she makes up her mind, not to mention, in her first line, Hana-ogi has to divulge all her concealed feelings to a stunned Lloyd, her openness is one thing doesn’t conform to the preconception of a Japanese woman, but here Taka takes the plunge in delivering it with elucidation and self-regard, showing that Hana-ogi is a real match, not an inferior to her man, even he is the almighty Marlon Brando!

Brando, of course, is well-versed in playing up his disarming western vulgarity to contrast the superfine politesse of his oriental counterparts, sporting a drawling southern accent, he roundly kicks up his heels in the process of acculturation, occasionally pettish and frivolous (watching his scenes with a young James Garner), but dead committed in his dogged pursuit of happiness, whether inter-racial or not, Brando’s oozing star magnetism is the hard sell few audience can become immune to.

referential entry: Alain Resnais’ HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR (1959, 8.1/10); Walter Lang’s THE KING & I (1956, 5.3/10).

不为什么，就因为Marlon Brando 骨子里的桀骜不驯。 很喜欢他在这部电影中的形象。 在关键时刻，为朋友，为爱人，绝对不会懦弱。

以前曾经在一个帖子里简短地写过，爱一个人有两个方面，一是心中有爱的感觉，另一个是让自己爱的人感觉到被爱被真的爱了。

樱花恋第一次看的时候我还很小，等了很很久才在电视的译制片中看到。看了以后，小小的我问妈妈：为什么马龙白兰度不喜欢那个将军的女儿呢？她也很好啊？
妈妈说：你看他和那个女人在一起的感觉，和他与这个喜欢的女人在一起的感觉，是完全不一样的啊！差别太大了！他对这个女人有了这种感觉，怎么可能再接受那个将军的女儿呢？
妈妈的话我当时不明白，但我记住了，想了好多年。
后来我明白，是的，真爱的感觉是什么也无法比拟的。那么强烈那么明确，那么非他不可，那么清楚地确定他就是我想要的。
樱花恋的特别之处，是在描写如何冲破文化、语言、社会习俗、阶层等障碍，把自己心中爱的感觉，奋力地清楚地表达出来、传达给对方，让对方知道、相信、了解、接受这爱情，并且爱上自己。
真爱的感觉人人都会有，但是可能太多人没有及时识别出来，或者没有用与真爱相称的纯粹和真诚，承认、表达、传达和实现这爱情。
祝福所有遇到爱情的人！珍惜自己的感情，认出自己的感情，勇敢真诚地表达出来，并且让对方感受到接受到。

改编自美国作家米切纳(James A Michener)的同名小说，讲述朝鲜战争期间一个驻日美军与日本歌舞伎女演员间的跨种族爱情。影片不乏西方眼中的东方意象，原以为是另一出《蝴蝶夫人》，却有不少细节描绘，例如写到军方如何看待和处理异族结合，刻划人物心理亦算到位。片中两位男女配角获奥斯卡认同，马龙白兰度演出散漫却仍别树一炽。(12/06) http://mcyiwenzhi.blogspot.com/2009/03/sayonara-1957.html