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Japanese War Bride

Die japanische Kriegsbraut
Retrospective 2020
Source: Sammlung Cinémathèque suisse. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.
American officer Jim Sterling is severely wounded in the Korean War. Recovering in a Japanese hospital, he is cared for by nurse Tae Shimizu. The two fall in love and get married. Jim brings his new bride home to his father’s ranch in Salinas, California, where the family treats them with goodwill, albeit reserve. However, Tae’s situation becomes difficult, and eventually untenable, after a neighbour blames her for the death of the woman’s son in a Japanese camp in Bataan in 1942. In addition, Tae’s sister-in-law spreads a rumour that the father of Tae’s son is not Jim, but a Japanese-American neighbour. Branded a “geisha girl”, Tae leaves her husband … Inter-cultural marriages were the subject of many US films in the 1950s. King Vidor’s anti-racist B movie draws a complex portrait of an unsettled society. The prejudices of the older generation stand in unforgiving contrast to the modern, cosmopolitan attitudes of the young. The model of how old rifts might be overcome is embodied in the film by a fully integrated Japanese-American family that embraces its American homeland despite having experienced discrimination.
by King Vidor
with Shirley Yamaguchi, Don Taylor, Cameron Mitchell, Marie Windsor, James Bell, Louise Lorimer, Philip Ahn, Sybil Merritt, Lane Nakano, Kathleen Mulqueen USA 1952 English 88’ Black/White

With

  • Shirley Yamaguchi
  • Don Taylor
  • Cameron Mitchell
  • Marie Windsor
  • James Bell
  • Louise Lorimer
  • Philip Ahn
  • Sybil Merritt
  • Lane Nakano
  • Kathleen Mulqueen

Crew

Director King Vidor
Screenplay Catherine Turney
Story Anson Bond
Cinematography Lionel Lindon
Editing Terry Morse
Music Emil Newman, Arthur Lange
Sound Victor Appel, Ed Borschell
Art Director Charles D. Hall
Costumes Izzy Berne, Adele Parmenter
Assistant Director Wilbur McGaugh
Producer Joseph Bernhard

Produced by

Bernhard Productions, Inc.

Additional information

Print: Harvard Film Archive, Cambridge MA

King Vidor

Filmography (selection)

1919 The Turn in the Road; Lost film 1925 The Big Parade (Die große Parade) 1928 The Crowd (Ein Mensch der Masse) 1929 Hallelujah 1934 Our Daily Bread (Der letzte Alarm) 1938 The Citadel 1940 Northwest Passage (Nordwest-Passage) 1947 Duel in the Sun (Duell in der Sonne) 1949 The Fountainhead (Ein Mann wie Sprengstoff) 1956 War and Peace (Krieg und Frieden) 1959 Solomon and Sheba (Salomon und die Königin von Saba)

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2020