This film made me realize how much we've lost as a country since the 1950s. According to Wikipedia at least, the book, play, and film were enormously popular for about 25 years, when political correctness set in, and liberals were oh-so-terribly aghast at Marlon Brando playing an Okinawan with a heavy accent. But it's Brando's character who is the most admirable in the movie -- sharp, perceptive, and cunning, but also warm, generous, and forgiving.All told, it's the Okinawans who come off well -- it is we Americans who seem rather ridiculous, with our notions of winning hearts and minds and spreading democracy. Remember that this film was made just ten years after WWII, when we were up against the Soviet Union, and democracy and "the American way" were at the heart of what we thought we were all about. But here is a film that completely satirizes, if not ridicules, all that, and yet it was enormously popular. Perhaps I'm looking at it through rose-tinted lenses -- there may well have been the Michael Savages and Rush Limbaughs of the day who inveighed against the Hollywood liberals seeking to undermine American resolve in the face of the Soviet threat and disgracing the memory of those who had died in WWII. But I think, more accurately, it was a time of greater American self- confidence, when we were able to laugh at ourselves more easily, and weren't terrified that this, that or another group might be ticked off. In short, this is a wise movie that should be seen by all those in power who have anything to do with how we conduct ourselves toward other nations and peoples -- as well as anyone who wants to see an entertaining but also educational film.

I saw Teahouse fifty years ago when it first came out, and the memory of my enjoyment stayed with me through the years. Every now and then I would wonder if it really was as good as I remembered. I finally rented the video to find out, and I enjoyed it far more this time than as a 14-year old. Glenn Ford's warmth and wisdom renewed my appreciation for his greatness as an actor. I again also marveled at how Marlon Brando became Sakini again before my very eyes. I was sure he couldn't fool me this time, that this time I would scoff at Brando as as Okianwan, but immediately he won me over.This was a very insightful and entertaining movie, made just over ten years after the end of the war, and with the Korean War truce just a couple of years old.

Blurb in the TCM on line guide said Brando as a translator tried to thwart Glenn Ford's intentions but that is not true. Brando and his people are genius in getting the U.S. military (via Ford and later Eddie Albert) to get what they want in their village, not what the U.S. was to build.Brando in full make-up and faux Japanese speech is hilarious. He is good natured and really does help Ford adapt but just twists things a bit to go his way (or the town's way).Glenn Ford feels he is a failure at everything he has done and wants this to be his success. After a few tries at what he is supposed to do: teach democracy, build a school, etc., he yields to the townspeople's wish of getting a Teahouse just like other villages have as to not appear so poor. The ultimate scheme to make the money they need to build, winds up being selling liquor to the U.S. Military when traditional handmade trinkets fail. The soldiers tell the townspeople that they can get the same stuff and the 5&dime for much cheaper made by something called "a machine".Saving face is the key at the beginning of the film - which is how Brando manipulates Ford. As the film goes on, things get funnier and funnier -- the end is poignant but you will walk away smiling.

Obviously, nowadays it makes us cringe that Marlon Brando plays a Japanese person, but "The Teahouse of the August Moon" is still a laugh riot. After WWII has ended, Capt. Fisby (Glenn Ford) is hired to spread democracy to an Okinawa village and build a school. But the townsfolk want a teahouse, and to convince him they even give him a present: a hot, over-enthusiastic geisha named Lotus Blossom (Machiko Kyo). When Fisby's superiors learn what's been going on, they naturally aren't pleased."TTOTAM" remains a comedy classic, especially with some of the dialogue between Fisby and his superiors ("I want to make sure that everything's distributed equally." "That's communism!"). How people come up with these wacky situations remains a mystery to me, but they did it with hilarious results. And above all, this movie shows us the problems with trying to spread democracy too quickly (Bush & Co. could learn something from this, given the mess that we've made in Iraq).