Honoring Chinese New Year - Flower Drum Song

Universal, 1961
Starring Nancy Kwan, James Shigata, Miyoshi Umeki, and Jack Soo
Directed by Henry Koster
Music by Richard Rodgers; Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein

We celebrate the Year of the Pig with this colorful generation gap tale. This may seem like an odd choice for Rogers and Hammestein, but they were no strangers to musicals about cultural folkways. It was the first modern-set movie with a primarily Asian cast in a story about Asians, and it was fairly popular in the early 60's. Let's head to San Francisco to see how well this tale of modern love triangles clashing with old-world Asian values holds up today...

The Story: Mei-Li (Umeki) and her father Dr. Han Li (Kam Tong) immigrate illegally to Chinatown so Mei to honor her pre-arranged marriage with Sammy Fong (Soo). Fong is the owner of the Celestial Gardens nightclub and has no desire to marry anyone but his girl, singer and stripper Linda Low (Kwan)...eventually. He turns the Lis over to Madame Liang (Juanita Hall), the sister-in-law of prosperous old-fashioned Master Wang (Benson Fong). Wang and Liang hope that Mei-Li will marry Wang's very American college son Wang Ta (Shigeta), but he ends up smitten with Linda. She doesn't really care much about him, other than getting a ring on her finger. She has the club's announcer and comedian Frankie Wing (Victor Sen Yung) pose as her brother in order to get the Wangs to agree to the wedding.

Sammy finally breaks off the wedding when he invites Master Wong to Celestial Gardens on Chinese New Year to see what Linda really does for a living. Shocked, Ta gets drunk and stays overnight with his friend Linda Chao (Reiko Sato), a seamstress who is also in love with him. Mei Li comes to her to have a coat mended, sees Ta's clothes there, and jumps to the wrong conclusion. Ta tries to talk to her, but she says she's ready to go through with the arranged marriage. Sammy, however, is not, and Ta really does care about her. It'll be up to Mei-Li herself to figure out how to unmix these couples and get "the younger generation" matched to everyone's satisfaction.

The Song and Dance: In many ways, this is still very charming. The ladies are the winners here. Kwan and Umeki score as the two very different brides, with Umeki delicate and sweet as a plum blossom, and Kwan brassy and salty. I also like the sole major non-Asian, Juanita Hall, as Madame Liang, who is taking citizenship classes and is more open to Western ways than Master Wang. James Shigata is quite easy on the eyes and has a stunning voice; no wonder all the women chase him. The Oscar-nominated sets, costumes, and cinematography ably capture all the hustle and "chop suey" East-Meets-West of San Francisco's Chinatown.

It's interesting that much of the story hinges on illegal immigration, considering how much that's in the news these days. While a lot of aspects of this story don't work now, that one almost feels ahead of its time.

Favorite Number: Kwan's "I Enjoy Being a Girl" is the sole standard to come from this score, and it gets a number worthy of it, too as she admires many versions of herself in the mirrors of her plush pink bedroom. Umeki's best musical moment is the actual "flower drum song" in the opening sequence, "A Hundred Million Miracles." Sato's "Love Look Away" is a ravishing ballad, with a lovely abstract ballet representing Helen's desire for Ta after it. Shigata gets another good love song, "You are Beautiful." "Grant Avenue" is better integrated into the score here than in the original Broadway version as a number for Kwan and the male dancers at the Chinese New Year Parade. Kwan and Soo get a more comic ballet, the hilarious "Sunday," as they imagine being normal suburban parents.

Trivia: The Broadway show debuted in 1958, and was the first and only stage show directed by Gene Kelly. It was one of the biggest hits of the 1958-1959 Broadway season, running for a year and a half.  Hall, It would be revived in 2002, with a totally re-written book by Chinese-American playwright David Henry Hwang. This version wasn't as well-received and lasted only six months.

This would be the last major American film with a mostly Asian cast until 1993's The Joy Luck Club.

Fans of sitcoms of the 60's and 70's will recognize two members of the cast. Soo played Sargent Nick Yemana on the long-running 70's cop comedy Barney Miller, while Umeki was the housekeeper Mrs. Livingston on The Courtship of Eddie's Father.

What I Don't Like: A lot of this story has simply not dated well, and not just the occasionally condescending portrayals of "The Older Generation" and Asian values and traditions. Linda Low's desperation for security and marriage and the cartoony "Sunday" number are very, very early 60's, as is the silly nightclub routine for  Frankie Wing, "Gliding Through My Memoree." Hall was cast as Madame Liang because their original choice, Anna May Wong, passed away before filming began and she played the role on Broadway...and yeah, it's pretty obvious she's the only non-Asian. Some of the lines comparing East and West sound awkward at best nowadays and slightly offensive at worst. Not to mention, not only were few people dubbed, but they were dubbed by non-Asians.

Linda Chao vanishes half-way through is never seen or heard from again. In the book this is based on, she apparently commits suicide after she can't get Ta to fall in love with her. Obviously, the musical wasn't going to be able to go that dark, but they could have at least mentioned her. Her big song and ballet, as beautiful as they are, really do nothing to move the plot along and just add to the already excessive length.

The Big Picture: Mixed feelings on this one. As much as I love the colorful costumes and some of the songs and performances, a lot of the story doesn't hold up nowadays. As one of the few mostly-Asian American films (and to my knowledge, the only mostly-Asian American musical), this is recommended on the sheer novelty value, performances, and musical numbers alone.

Home Media: I highly recommend my 2-disc DVD set from 2006, which has a gorgeous restoration and a ton of extras. It can also found on Amazon Prime and as part of a 3-pack with two other popular Universal musicals, Mamma Mia! and Jesus Christ Superstar.

DVD
DVD - Musicals Spotlight Collection
Amazon Prime