Air Force Major Lloyd Gruver is reassigned to a Japanese air base and is confronted with US racial prejudice against the Japanese people. The issue is compounded because a number of the soldiers become romantically involved with Japanese women, in defiance of US military policy. Ordinarily, a by-the-book officer, Gruver must take a position when a buddy of his, an enlisted man, Joe Kelly, falls in love with a Japanese woman, Katsumi, and marries her. Gruver risks his position by serving as best man at the wedding ceremony.
Acting
Brando's controlled restraint vs. Miyoshi Umeki's devastating vulnerability.
Cinematography
Lush Technicolor Japan that romanticizes even as it critiques.
Score
Romeo-and-Juliet strings that refuse to let you stay dry-eyed.
Director
Joshua Logan
Marlon Brando
Major Lloyd Gruver
Patricia Owens
Eileen Webster
James Garner
Capt. Mike Bailey
Martha Scott
Mrs. Webster
Miiko Taka
Hana-ogi
Miyoshi Umeki
Katsumi
Red Buttons
Joe Kelly
Kent Smith
Gen. Webster
Reiko Kuba
Fumiko-san
Soo Yong
Terukosan
Ricardo Montalban
Nakamura
Dennis Hopper
MP in Kelly's House / MP at Tokyo Airport (voice) (uncredited)
Peter Brown
Second Military Police (voice) (uncredited)
Kenner G. Kemp
General at Tokyo Airport (uncredited)
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Miyoshi Umeki became the first Asian woman to win an Oscar for this role—then Hollywood forgot she existed.
Brando allegedly slept through much of the shoot; his 'method' exhaustion apparently reads as 'tortured officer.'
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