Picture Bride (1994)

Director:

Kayo Hatta

Writers:

Kayo Hatta (screenplay)
Kayo Hatta (story)

Release Date:

5 mayo 1995 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Frase comercial:

Hawaii, 1918. She left Japan for a man she had never met, in a new world she couldn't imagine... America.

Plot:

The story of 16-year-old Riyo who journeys to Hawaii in 1918 to marry a man she has never met, except...

Plot Keywords:

Katana Sword | Arranged Marriage | Asian American | Hawaii | Japanese

Awards:

2 wins & 6 nominations

Comentarios de los usuarios:

Gotten better with age

Cast

Youki Kudoh	...	Riyo
Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa	...	Kanzaki
Tamlyn Tomita	...	Kana
Akira Takayama	...	Matsuji
Yôko Sugi	...	Aunt Sode
Christianne Mays	...	Miss Pieper
Toshirô Mifune	...	The Benshi
listado alfabético del resto del reparto:
Michael Ashby	...	McCullum
James Grant Benton	...	Antone
Glenn Cannon	...	Mer. Pieper
Lito Capiña	...	Augusto
Peter Clark	...	Christian minister
Warren Fabro	...	Felipe
Michael Hasegawa	...	Immigration officer
Kyle Kakuno	...	Yamamoto
Moe Keale	...	Hawaiian fisherman
Kati Kuroda	...	Yayoi
Jessica Louie	...	Kei-chan
Natasha Mamiya	...	Kei-chan
Melvin Miranda	...	Miguel
Keiji Morita	...	Photographer
Hatsuko Otsuka	...	Fumi
Dawn Saito	...	Geisha
Riki Sugimoto	...	Gambler
Traci Toguchi	...	Uto

También conocida como:

Bijo photo (Japan)
Foto del compromiso, La (Spain) [es]

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for sensuality.

Duración:

95 min | 98 min

País:

Japan | USA

Idioma:

English | Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sonido:

Dolby

Clasificación:

Iceland:L | Spain:T | USA:PG-13

Filming Locations:

Waialua, O`ahu, Hawaii, USA

Company:

Cecile Films

Quotes:

Miss Pieper: [suspecting that something is wrong with Kana] Kana, how is everything with your husband?
Kana: [quietly] Good day, Miss Pieper.

Gotten better with age

I saw this when it premiered and just re-watched it on IFC again. This is a great telling of the many possible stories about the immigrant farmworker population that came to Hawai'i to work the sugar plantations in the early 1900's. My grandparents were part of that migration; my parents were born on a Kohala plantation (Big Island) at the time setting of the movie. I moved to the Big Island over a year ago after living in California for over 30 years. I was surprised to see that many of the former cane growing lands are still undeveloped, with wild cane still growing, years after the plantations closed. I've heard many stories from my aunts and uncles who were kids growing up on the plantation. This movie helps to image those kinds of stories and memories. This story is more of an historical document than a romantic plot-driven movie. It leaves me shaking my head to read a review like ccthemovieman's. Some people just don't get it.

I didn't recall that Youki Kudoh had the starring role, with which she did an incredible job. I recall her great performances in Jim Jarmusch's "Mystery Train" and in an Australian film, co- starring with Russell Crowe, "Heaven's Burning". Tamlyn Tomita did a great job with her pidgin English, especially for someone who didn't grow up in the Islands. I had forgotten that Toshiro Mifune had a cameo role as the moving picture show narrator. And I missed the fact that Jason Scott Lee had an uncredited, non-speaking part as one of the plantation workers during the payday scene.

I was saddened to find out that the director and co-writer, Kayo Hatta, died in an accidental drowning in 2005.

There are two other excellent foreign films that mirror this cane plantation experience: "Gaijin" about the immigrant cane workers in Brazil (many of them Japanese) in the same time period; and "Sugar Cane Alley" about the cane plantation experience in Africa. The latter is still available, but "Gaijin", sadly, doesn't appear to have been shown in quite a while. Another great film about the early Asian in America experience when immigrants were more like slaves is "A Thousand Pieces of Gold". This was set over the Chinese workers' involvement in the building of the railroad, starred Rosalind Chao, Chris Cooper, Michael Paul Chan, and Dennis Dun.