alec guiness


This movie was on the TV a few days ago, where i saw it for the first time.
I did not realise that Alec Guiness was supposed to be japanese until a discussion between his charater and Mrs Jacoby, where guiness commented on his being Japanese.
From then on, I was too distracted by guiness's un japanese appearance and it was too unbelivable that other characters would look at him and think...yes, japanese.
Anyone else have this problem?

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haha its on TV right now and when I heard he was supposed to be Japanese I almost fainted from laughing too hard then I had to get it confirmed on here, what a joke!

The hardest word in the english language is rorripop!

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Channel 9 right? I thought it was pretty funny too, but I'm willing to give the film a chance, just because it's Guinness.

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Yes, how ridiculous it's on tv now, as much as I love Sir Alec I just couldn't waste my time watching this for too long, and it went for 3 hours, this would have to be his most challenging role ever, sadly he didn't manage to look or sound japanese in any shape or form and I just couldn't look past that.
The producer/director must have been on acid when choosing a leading man for this one.


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...if you cant manage suspension of disbelief for a story as simple and beautiful as this...
...youve no right watching films at all...

...birds of awesomeness flock together...

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Unfortunately, the accents were so dodgy that it was difficult to suspend disbelief.

Alec Guiness sounded like King Fiesel and Roz Russell sounded like the mother from "The Nanny". It was distracting. Alec's charcterisation seemed like a Peter Sellers parody. And was i the only one who felt the son was some David Schwimmer clone?

I realise there was a subtext of cultural sterotypes and cultural ignorance but i found the stereotypical charcters to be somewhat dated. Still, it was very 'educational' about the cultures involved and provoked food for thought and a charmimg 'autumn of our life' love story.

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Funny you should mention Peter Sellers because I was trying to compare Alec Guiness to other similar bad characterisations and I thought of Peter Sellers in The Party but then I remembered how well he did portray an Indian.

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I realise there was a subtext of cultural sterotypes and cultural ignorance but i found the stereotypical charcters to be somewhat dated.
Well of course they were dated! The stage play opened in 1959 and the movie released in 1961.

It's amazing to look back only half a century on the depth of our ignorance of other cultures in the world. The characters may have been stereotypical, but they were uncomfortably accurate nonetheless. At that time we still knew almost as little about Japan, its people, and their culture and customs as did Gilbert and Sullivan when they wrote "The Mikado". In a word, next to nothing.

Back then far too many Americans traveling abroad expected everyone they met to speak English to them.

We may have come a long way, but I think we've still got a way to go toward understanding each other.

Granted, today they would have HAD to cast an Asian actor as Mr. Asano.
Granted, too, this was not Mr. Guinness most convincing accent and makeup.
However, even with that handicap, I do think he was still able to convey the emotions and personality that was needed for the character.

BTW: Check out Peter Seller's portrayal of Inspector Sidney Wang in "Murder By Death" (1976). It's an all-star cast doing a wonderful spoof of all the old film noir detectives of the 1930s and 40s. Seller's Sidney Wang character was a spoof on Charlie Chan. (It wasn't until much later that Chan was played by an Asian actor, up to that time he'd always been played by a Caucasian.) And in that movie, Alec Guinness played the blind butler.
Some of our greatest catastrophes have been caused by people talking, and some by people not talking.
Stephen Hawking
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I've traveled a long way and some of the roads weren't paved.
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I have no trouble managing suspension of disbelief, it's the absurdity of casting an englishman who doesn't remotely look or sound like the leading japanese character he is meant to portray that I find laughable and so it seems other posters here do as well. Maybe you have been suspended in disbelief for too long...

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I thought it beautiful, but was completely distracted by both the lead characters not actually being who they protrayed. That was typical of movies of that era though wasn't it? I'd love to see it remade with a Japanese man, but that may also take some of the magic away.

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I also caught some of this movie last weekend on Channel 9 here in Sydney Australia. I am a uni. lecturer doing some research into Hollywood representations of Japanese by Westerners (and others), so I was intrigued by Alec Guiness's representation of the Japanese man. I've seen too much Star Wars to take him seriously (I recently watched The Bridge on the River Kwai) in anything else but as Obi One. That says lots about me, doesn't it! Since I haven't seen the whole film I can't comment in too much detail about his representation but I got the VHS and will watch it more closely. 1961 was when Breakfast at Tiffany's also came out and Mickey Rooney as Mr Yunioshi is a much worse stereotype as many people have commented here in the IMDb message boards. I wonder what the reason was to use Guiness as a Japanese? Hayakawa Sessue from other films such as The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) and The Geisha Boy (1958) (with Jerry Lewis) and Three Came Home (1950) could have been a reasonable choice, however, my initial feeling is by using a caucasian actor the sexual tension between russell and guiness seemed to be authenicated and approved of rather than made more controversial like with brando and miko taga in Sayonara (1957). Oh by the way doesn't anyone know any australian movies from a similar period in which caucasians played japanese (and other Asians)?


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[deleted]

Sessue Hayakawa would have been a far better choice from the authenticity point of view - both in ethnic and in age terms - as Guinness is too young for the role as well - and would not have been a step down in talent terms; although much of Hayakawa's later career was doomed to post-War stereotyping, his early career in New York and Hollywood was not. The only drawback would have been that Hayakawa would not have been the marquee name that Guinness was....and that would have been the prime consideration.

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Movie girl: Yes, Sessue would have been wonderful casting. I really like some of his films. I was very touched by Three Came Home. He might have done a splendid performance here too. However, I did like Alec in the role. (WHen I first saw this on TV as a kid, I wondered briefly why Alec played the part of a Japanese businessman. When the story was well underway I became so diverted that I found myself enjoying it.

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What's the matter with you people? Apparently, you do NOT realize you are judging a movie made in 1960 by 2008-12 standards. Get over yourself!

This is a lovely movie that I enjoy almost every time it is on tcm. In 1960 it was too soon to use japanese guys to portray japanese guys in an AMERICAN movie. If you don't get that, they you shouldn't be commenting.

Bah humbug! Sweet movie.

Life is a journey not a destination. Fear nothing.

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by that time, they were pretty much changing over. That's why i thought the casting was a bit odd. (Not Rosalinds so much.)A movie as recent at this you might have thought they would have tried to use an asian actor.

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I'm a bit puzzled as to why several people went nuts over Guiness' believability in this role. I had no trouble believing his accent, and since I used to longshore on Japanese ships back in high school, I've had a LOT of exposure to Japanese speaking English, from the gutteral attempts of the ordinary seamen to the often quite polished phrasing of some of the senior ship's officers. I also spent several decades in the Army, and served as the American Protocol Officer for 18 months, where I dealt with hundreds of Japanese VIPs and senior officers, and nothing about Alec Guinness' speech patterns struck me as phony.

In fact I was rather surprised at how much effort he put into speaking Japanese, and it sounded quite convincing, though admittedly knew only a few words and phrases in that language. His efforts were impressive, and certainly an improvement over what would be done by today's actors, most of whom would have faked it by using back shots and someone else doing a voice-over.

For those that feel a Japanese actor should have been used, and that this was offensive somehow -- my comments would be inappropriate for a family forum.

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How sad that so many of you are so ignorant and ill-mannered to titter, laugh and poke fun at a wonderful movie like this. How grown up and cosmopolitan and sophisticated of you to make fun of someone simply based on their appearance & speech. How sad that the very important lessons illustrated and topics covered in the film, lessons you are so clearly and direly in need of, based on your silly and inane posts, you failed to learn and probably never will understand. Guiness did look, act and sound like many Japanese. Clearly, the closest many of you will get to knowing about Japanese is a Sony TV set.

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um, in case you don't know there were many complaints BY ASIANS about that very thing. That type of casting has been seen as racist.

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I concur, I taught English to adult Japanese in Okinawa for two years in the mid-90s. His English pronunciation was rather typical. I spent three years answering to Risa-san. My students thought the hardest word was 'refrigerator'; getting all of those syllables in the right order, with the right vowel pronunciation and syllable accent was difficult.

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Even Robert Osborne, in his introduction on TCM, said it was miscast!!
I could not tolerate the so very UN Japanese portrayal as well as Rosalind Russel's over the top Jewish accent. Made caricatures of both.
Fine actors both--to be sure.....but super miscast!!!
And since someone brought up "The Good Earth" cast-----those actors did a good job of attempting to be Asian. Minority of One does not.

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It's the result of, in a word, bigotry.

Of all the great American producers, only Ross Hunter had the courage to put real Asians in leads playing Asians. In the films featuring interracial romances, the couples were virtually never seen kissing ("Syonara," "China Doll," "Walk Like a Dragon," "The Purple Plain".

At least, makeup artists made Marlon Brando ("Teahouse of the August Moon"), Mickey Rooney ("Breakfast at Tiffanys") and Kathryn Hepburn ("Dragon Seed") look Asian. Guinness might have been fine in the role, had more effort been made with makeup.

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This film fails on so many levels and to me is the low point in the careers of two wonderful stars. Yes, bigotry, ironic given the plot! They couldn't even cast a real Jew in the female lead, even though Gertrude Berg had received a Tony for the role on Broadway. Watanabe isn't old enough; I say Chow Yun-Fat, still a bit young but one of the tastiest actors on screen. Female...not sure. Someone from the Yiddish Theater might not be a big enough draw. Maybe Meryl Streep?

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Surely Mickey Rooney's makeup job was one of the worst ever seen! It was complete with fake buck teeth and glasses like the cartoons of Japanese in WWII!

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Agreed. Guinness, fine actor though he is, seemed high and not Asian to me throughout the movie. And Russell's campy Jewish accent was much too much. I liked the film but these were definite detractions to it.

Perhaps it was the temper of the times that precluded it or the need of a draw of known, famous names, but I feel a real Japanese actor and a Jewish woman should have played the parts.

Am I anywhere near the imaginary cliff?

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I can't watch this cause the actor is not japanese == not a sophisticated approach to art.

I can't look at this marble statue, it's not real flesh!

I can't watch this animation; it's just drawn characters!

Look -- by saying you can't watch this because you know Alec Guiness is not Japanese you are just revealing your own lack of ability to let art do to you what it does to people who appreciate art. It's your problem, not the film's.

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Because you replied to my post, I assume you are addressing me.

Where in my post did I saw I wasn't able to watch it??? I enjoyed the film. Alec Guinness's makeup was not reliastic to me, which is a legitimate criticism.

Maybe you need a more sophisticated approach to reading others' posts.

Am I anywhere near the imaginary cliff?

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I am watching this now and this is just god awful. This man is supposed to be Japanese? He does not look remotely Asian, sounds like an Englishman, and I do not care what kind of makeup, or pulling back of his eyes they have done.

He does not fit the part, the actor looks like he is either blind or constantly squinting his eyes. Seriously, he looks like he is stoned and cannot open his eyes properly. WTF???

I understand that showing interracial relationships were taboo back then, and it may not have been OK to show a real Japanese person with a white person, but this pathetic attempt of casting a white person to play an Asian is an EPIC FAILURE.

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I'm watching this on TCM right now, and cannot agree with you more. Simply squinting your eyes and slurring your speech may be fine if you're telling an off-color joke (no, I don't really think that's fine), but portraying a Japanese person this way is insulting. And Russell's portrayal is just as much of a stereotype. Hard to believe the talent behind this movie. It's easy to see how this started as a play, but they couldn't have found a Japanese actor to play the Asano? And Rosiland Russell should have just played more of herself than try to become such a cliche.

Big disappointment for me.

If we all liked the same movie, there'd only be one movie!

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I just replied about this on another board...I'd like to to know what other people think...I had my say about Hollywood and Caucasian comfort levels at the time...what do you think? I'd love to hear others' thoughts!

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Cedric Hardwicke played the Guinness role on Broadway. I'm not sure how Japanese he may have looked!

"May I bone your kipper, Mademoiselle?"

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