Flower Drum Song
Tags: romantic

Plot synopsis:
During the potpourri overture and opening credits, oriental figures portray a journey from Hong Kong to San Francisco aboard a cargo ship.
When the action begins a young Chinese girl, Mei Li, and her father, Dr. Han Li, peer out a porthole in the ship as they sail into San Francisco harbor. They have stowed away in crates in the cargo hold of the ship. Later after the cargo has been unloaded onto the dock, Mei Li and her father climb out of their crates and wander the streets of San Francisco Mei Li thinks it is a wonderful city and must be a holy place since its named for a saint.
They wander into a park, where they ask several people for help to find the address of Madam Fong who has chosen Mei Li as the bride for her son, Sammy. Even though most of the people in the park are Orientals, none of them can read Chinese. The newly arrived illegal immigrants have no money, so Mei Li proposes that she and her father give a show. She will sing a song with the flower drum: "A Hundred Million Miracles." The lyrics sing about miracles occurring every day. During this rendition, she sings about the miracle of changing weather. The gathered crowd rewards their performance with money, but as they are collecting it a policeman asks if they have a license. After explaining that they are looking for the address of Sammy Fong, the policeman escorts them to Sammy's nightclub, the Celestial Gardens.
Linda Low and several Celestial Gardens chorus girls perform "Fan Tan Fannie" as the floorshow. During the number Dr. Li, Mei Li and the policeman enter. The policeman asks to speak to Sammy. When this totally assimilated hipster arrives, he tells the officer that these are the folks he has been looking for and recognizes a photo of Mei Li that his mother had shown him. Sammy's mother is insisting on his union with a traditional Chinese girl in an arranged marriage. In the club's kitchen, Sammy feeds the starving immigrants. Mei Li likes American cooking, but Sammy is insulted; he contends his club serves the best Chinese cooking in the bay area. Dr. Li asks Sammy if he intends to honor his marriage proposal. Linda, Sammy's long-time girlfriend, comes into the room just in time to overhear this question. She furiously stalks out of the room. Sammy goes after her and promises Linda he'll unload the Chinese bride the next day. If Linda will understand, he promises to buy her a new convertible.
The following day Sammy visits Madam Liang, the sister-in-law of Master Wang, who wants a traditional bride for his son, Wang Ta. Later, Wang Ta describes himself as half American, half Chinese. He is Americanized enough to want to choose his own wife, which is a break with his Chinese heritage. Sammy tells Madam Liang about Mei Li and asks her to show the girl's photograph to her brother-in-law, which she agrees to do.
When Madam Liang presents Mei Li's photograph to Master Wang, he is delighted with the girl. Master Wang is very traditional and has been vainly attempting to keep two sons from being seduced by the American life-style. These two elderly Orientals sing "The Other Generation," a song about the gulf between first generation Chinese immigrants and their offspring.
Master Wang's youngest son, Wang San, is entirely Americanized. Wearing a baseball uniform, Wang San sings his version of "The Other Generation" to two smaller oriental girls. Wang San and the girls sing and dance to the song, which is about the older generation preaching to them about the old days and the way things were when they were growing up.
Wang Ta had asked his father for some money, so Wang Chi-Yang takes $100 from a chest under his bed to take to the bank to get change (Master Wang doesn't trust banks). As Master Wang is returning from the bank, openly counting his money, a man robs him. Later, Madam Liang forces her brother-in-law to open a bank account.
Shortly after this incident, Sammy arrives with Mei Li for Master Wang to inspect her. After Master Wang looks her over, she volunteers to sing a flower drum song. In this version of "A Hundred Million Miracles," Mei Li sings about the miracle of making music. Master Wang is very impressed and asks Mei Li and her father to stay with him so he can present her to his son. Master Wang is persuaded by his sister-in-law to allow his son and Mei Li to fall in love naturally American style. But, Master Wang will only allow a short period of time before he intervenes.
Wang Ta is dazzled by Linda Low's charms. He telephones her and asks her for a date. She agrees to one immediately, but needs twenty minutes to get ready. As she dresses, she sings "I Enjoy Being a Girl." Linda loves everything about being feminine, including her curvy figure, her frilly clothes, and her silken curls. She also loves to receive flowers, to talk for hours on the telephone and even appreciates guys whistling at her when she wears a bikini, although she pretends to be offended.
Linda and Ta go for a ride in her new convertible; she tells Ta the car was given to her by her brother, but it was actually purchased by Sammy. During their excursion, Ta asks Linda to wear his fraternity pin (a symbol of going steady), which she agrees to do. She hopes her relationship with Ta will make Sammy jealous enough to propose.
When Ta sneaks into his house very late, Mei Li is still awake. She tells him she and her father are guests of his father and that she has come to this country to get married. As Ta retreats to his bedroom, he tells Mei Li, I hope you'll like it here, which the girl misinterprets as his approval of their relationship. She has no idea of his infatuation with Linda Low, so she sings "I Am Going to Like It Here," as she contemplates living with Ta in the Wang household. The next morning as Mei Li delivers Master Wang's breakfast to his bedroom, she is still singing "I Am Going to Like It Here." She informs him that she met his eldest son the previous evening.
Helen Chao, an excellent seamstress, brings the graduation gown she has made for Ta and wants to present it to him as a gift (she is obviously in love with Ta, but he doesn't seem to think of her romantically). Ta invites Helen to the party they are having after his graduation. He also mentions that his aunt, Madam Liang, is becoming a U.S. citizen, so they will be celebrating that also. Helen volunteers to make a happy coat for Madam Liang.
Linda pressures Ta to get married. She tells him she'll bring her brother to the graduation party to settle the details.
Master Wang presents Mei Li with a beautiful American gown to wear to the party. When she models it, Ta is very impressed. Mei Li tells him that his brother, San, says he only likes American tomatoes.
At the after-graduation party, Madam Liang is presented an award as the best student in her citizenship class. In honor of the occasion, she sings "Chop Suey," in which she compares living in the U.S. to the Chinese dish invented by Americans. The song is primarily a catalog of Fifties famous personalities and fads. To her, American society, like Chop Suey, is a melting pot. A dance involving many of the party guests follows. The dance too is a mixture of dance styles including a line dance, a Twenties-style Charleston, rock 'n' roll and jazz.
Linda and her Sea Captain-brother arrive at the party (actually the comic from the Celestial Gardens is posing as her brother). When Linda's brother mentions Ta's proposal of marriage to Master Wang, the elder Wang coughs (he always coughs when things don't go his way). Mei Li overhears their conversation and becomes upset, but Helen reassures her that Ta isn't really in love with Linda. Mei Li is so upset that she and her father tell Master Wang they must leave, but Master Wang talks Mei Li into giving Ta a little more time.
Sammy is also at the party and calls Linda's hand (of course, he recognizes the comic from his club). He tells her he knows she doesn't love Ta. Linda complains that she and Sammy have been together for five years and nothing has happened (meaning no permanent commitment). At the New Year's parade (held on New Year's Eve) we hear an excerpt from John Philip Sousa's "Stars and Stripes Forever." Linda is on one of the parade's floats. She steps off the float to sing "Grant Avenue," a song about one of the principal streets in the largest Chinatown outside of Asia. She sings about the thoroughfare being a western street with eastern manners where visitors can eat shark-fin soup or bean cake fish. Deviously, Sammy invites the Wang family to his club. Master Wang doesn't want to go, but Sammy tells him if he wants to break up his son's romance with Linda, he should be there.
Before the New Year's Eve show at the Celestial Gardens, Linda asks Sammy if she can quit that evening, but Sammy talks her into staying for the big New Year's Eve crowd. He asks if Ta had ever seen her act. She tells him no, that's the reason she wants to quit.
Master Wang, Madam Liang, Ta, Mei Li and Dr. Li enter the Celestial Gardens and are seated as Sammy's guests. The club announcer, Frankie Wing, the comic who played Linda's brother at the graduation party, performs "Gliding Through My Memory" about all the girls he remembers. The club's show girls are all Orientals, but they portray girls from Ireland, Sweden, England, Spain, France, etc. as Frankie sings. The last lines of the song sing about none of these girls comparing with the girl right here and Linda comes out to perform a fan dance (a mock strip tease; in the original stage version it was more of an actual strip number). When Ta sees Linda's performance, he is shocked. Meanwhile, Sammy is smiling because everything is going as he planned. Towards the end of her dance, Linda opens and closes her fans right in Master Wang's face. He coughs loudly and immediately exits the club, followed by the rest of his party. At the end of the number, Linda dumps a bucket of ice on Sammy's head.
Helen, who witnessed what transpired, follows Ta and goes with him to the Ricksha Bar to drink Tiger Bone Wine for the New Year. Early the next morning, we see Helen supporting Ta, who is drunk, as they enter her apartment. Before Ta sleeps off his drunkenness, Helen tells him that Linda has been Sammy's girl for five years. After Ta drifts off to sleep, Helen sings the very beautiful "Love, Look Away" about her unrequited love for Ta. Although she has cared for Ta for a long time, she begs love to leave and set her free. This musical sequence also includes a ballet-type dance that involves Ta and several other dancers. At the end of the number, she slides away from Ta's reach. The next morning, Helen has fixed breakfast for Ta. Before he wakes, Mei Li brings one of Master Wang's coats for Helen to mend. While she is there Mei Li recognizes Ta's coat draped around a kitchen chair. Mei Li jumps to conclusions and leaves horrified. Just after she leaves, Ta awakes, quickly dresses and, certain that his father will be worried, hurries away.
When Ta returns home, he apologizes to his father and tells him he was right about Linda Low. Master Wang calls Mei Li, but when she sees Ta, she runs into the garden crying. Ta follows her and tells her he wants to tell her a story. His story evolves into the song "You Are Beautiful." The lyrics tell about a flower boat with singing girls drifting down a stream in the Hwang Ho Valley. One of the girls was a beautiful, small, shy girl. Ta sings that Mei Li is the girl he saw, the girl he heard laugh, as the boat sailed past. He knew that she was the girl he would love some day. During the entire song, Mei Li's eyes are downcast. When the song concludes, she tells him she learned that he wanted another girl not Linda and she tells him about seeing his coat in Helen's apartment. She says her heart hurt so much that she does not love him anymore and she runs inside. A short time later, Mei Li and her father leave Master Wang's house to pursue the marriage contract between Mei Li and Sammy Fong.
Back at the club Sammy and some of his buddies are playing poker when his mother and uncle arrive. Linda bursts into the gambling room to complain about the dirty trick Sammy played on the Wang family. Sammy gets his mother and uncle to go on ahead to the family association meeting promising to meet them there soon. After they depart, Sammy tries to sooth Linda's feelings. He tells her he did her a favor and besides he and Linda belong together. And to prove it, he asks her to marry him. She immediately and enthusiastically accepts. They sing about their life of marital bliss in "Sunday." They are looking forward to spending lazy, lovely Sundays together. The song develops into quite a dance that includes a maid, a guest couple, a gardener, a butler on skates, a couple of Sammy's former girlfriends, a beatnik couple and a son dressed in a cowboy outfit.
At the family association meeting Dr. Li presents the contract that Madam Fong signed for her son to marry Mei Li. The association pledges that the contract will be honored. Madam Fong is ecstatic and takes Mei Li and her father to her house.
Later, Sammy goes to his mother's to tell her he has finally decided to settle down and get married. Of course, he is talking about Linda, but Madam Fong has other ideas. She has already prepared a wedding announcement for the marriage of her son, Samuel Adams Fong to Mei Li, the daughter of Dr. Han Li, former Professor of Philosophy at Peking University.
When Linda sees the announcement she is decidedly upset. Sammy tries to convince her that nothing has changed, except his mother expects him to marry Mei Li. One evening at Madam Fong's, Sammy and Mei Li are attempting to get to know each other and to find something in common. Finally, Sammy asks if she would like to see how he spends his evenings. He takes her to a gambling casino where he loses, to a bar where all the girls know him intimately, to a beatnik hangout (the song "Like a God" from the Broadway musical was changed into a beatnik poem for the film version). Early the following morning to further dissuade Mei Li, Sammy sings "Don't Marry Me," in which he itemizes his many faults and the various reasons why he would make a lousy husband. The problem is it's too late; the contract is signed and sealed.
Before the wedding, Ta visits Mei Li, and they realize they are deeply in love with one another. They agree to try to come up with an idea that will get Mei Li out of the marriage contract.
After Wang Ta leaves, Mei Li watches an old TV western about illegal immigrants called "wet backs."
At the wedding ceremony, just before her marriage to Sammy is sealed, Mei Li declares that because she entered the country illegally and her back is wet, the contract is invalid. Ta volunteers to marry Mei Li and Sammy and Linda agree to make it a double wedding.

Review: Forget the PC and enjoy the movie, musical numbers, actors and film titles..
The last time I saw Flower Drum Song on a big screen was at the Asian Pacific American Studies event at New York University, spurred on by David Henry Hwang's Broadway revival which received favorable reviews except for one paper.
Right around this time, Kwan, France Nuyen, and Nobu McCarthy all came along at the same time and seemed to battle for the same parts.Two songs that are overlooked gems are You Are Beautiful which Johnny Mathis sang beautifully on record and Love Look Away.
As a Japanese-American raised in the 1960's, I always had mixed feelings about the 1961 film version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Chinese-American musical comedy.
Although it was refreshing to see so many Asian faces in a mainstream studio movie (granted several Japanese-American actors in Chinese roles), the portrayals always struck me as trite and catering to pre-existing stereotypes.
Moreover, there is the music, which while not grade-A material from the legendary team, has enough of their recognizably melodious style to make the whole affair quite entertaining now.Set in San Francisco's Chinatown in the late 1950's, the soufflé-light story, written by Joseph Fields, is a family-oriented, musical-chairs romantic comedy focused on East-West cultural differences primarily in the well-to-do Wang household headed by the ultra-traditional Master Wang.
Looking like a porcelain doll brought to life, Miyoshi Umeki lends her uniquely plaintive quality to the role of Mei Li, and she sings with quiet clarity on her trademark song, "A Hundred Million Miracles".
Of the supporting cast, two performers stand out - teenaged Patrick Adiarte dancing energetically as younger son Wang Tan, and as the lovelorn Helen, Reiko Sato leads a stunning ballet on the show's best song, "Love, Look Away" (her voice is dubbed by legendary soprano Marilyn Horne).
If we ever have any sons, he will probably be like Wang San in many ways and she could see the old man's reaction to his youngest son's could be very similar between her father and our son yet to be conceived.What she thought was laughably bad was "A Hundred Million Miracles" trying to be passed off as a real flower drum song.
They missed a few things obviously, but for two Jewish boys from NYC, R and H as well as Joseph Fields libretto did an awesome job of keeping it real, much more so here than with the King and I which both play and movie are banned forever in Thailand because the Thai people find it so offensive.As far as David Hwang's remake of FDS goes, I really can't comment on it because I haven't read it or seen it.
I love the novel and I think the original play and movie missed opportunities for beefing up the Helen Chao character better.
She loves the characters in this movie; in many ways, they brought China to life for her and what it is like living in a totally new culture, not understanding anything at all, or in her case thinking you know a foreign culture because you have worked with foreigners and finding it's completely different over here.Kudos and thank you to RandH, Ross Hunter and his team in creating a movie that has aged so gracefully, (as has Ms. Kwan) for the most part, and making serious cultural and generational issues that will probably never go away fun.
Soon, you hear "A Hundred Million Miracles, with doll-like Miyoshi Umeki, and other great songs like "Love Look Away," and "Sunday." The choreography is as impressive as the music, in particular the erotic dance sequence for "Love Look Away," with beautiful Reiko Sato as Helen.
Nancy Kwan as Linda Low, of course, looks great, sings well, and slinks around very nicely, as do the many other lovely Asian dancers who grace this testament to Chinese American culture and oriental beauty.
The former became one of the most successful and consistently employed oriental actors in American film and television, while the latter went on to play Nick Yemana on "Barney Miller." Although there are some corny aspects to "Flower Drum Song," these are more than counterbalanced by the many interesting elements that occur throughout the movie.
Worth the wait - director Henry Koster's Rodgers & Hammerstein's "Flower Drum Song" finally available on DVD as Special Edition.
The 1961 musical "Flower Drum Song" is a fabulous Ross Hunter [1] production (top-notch art direction, cinematography, costume design, set decoration, film editing and sound).
Directed by Henry Koster [2], music and lyrics from the popular pair of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein 2nd, with Alfred Newman supervised & conducted the music score which included a wide spectrum from Asian 'flower drum song' tune, to jazzy rhythm, strings orchestral for ballet/dance pieces, to montage songs and cabaret show numbers / big band melodies; associate vocal music arranger Ken Darby, and simply marvelous choreography by Hermes Pan.Such a stellar cast: Nancy Kwan as Linda Low and Jack Soo as Sammy, Miyoshi Umeki as Mei Li and James Shigeta as Ta, Juanita Hall (of "South Pacific" 1958 fame) as Madam Liang / 'my wife's sister,' Benson Fong as Ta's father / 'my sister's husband,' Reiko Sato as Helen Chao (the seamstress), and what an amazing, versatile dancer Patrick Adiarte is (his debut role was in "The King and I" 1956 as the eldest prince opposite Yul Brynner).
The musical numbers and songs are catchy and entertaining, matching key segments of the storyline: A Hundred Million Miracles; (What Are We Going To Do About) The Other Generation; Chop Suey; I Enjoy Being A Girl; Sunday (Sweet Sunday); Fan Tan Fannie; Grant Avenue; Love Look Away (sung by Marilyn Horne); Don't Marry Me; and more.
If you don't usually watch musicals, give "Flower Drum Song" a try, it's drama and humor would provide an enjoyable time.[1] Memorables produced by Ross Hunter: "The Chalk Garden" 1964 (d: Ronald Neame; Hayley Mills, Deborah Kerr, John Mills); "Pillow Talk" 1959 (with Doris Day, Rock Hudson, Thelma Ritter, Tony Randall); "Imitation of Life" 1959 (d: Douglas Sirk; Lana Turner, Juanita Moore, Sandra Dee) [2] Favorites directed by Henry Koster: "Three Smart Girls" 1936 with Deanna Durbin; "The Singing Nun" 1966 with Debbie Reynolds.
Nancy Kwan has never looked lovelier as Linda Loo and Jack Soo is always a delight.Juanita Hall brings her great presence to the role of Madame Liang and Miyoshi Umeki and James Shigeta are two fine performers.
The score contains a few great numbers like "Love, Look Away" and "I Enjoy Being a Girl" (In spite of the sexist lyrics, it's a fun song), but overall is not as good as other Rodgers and Hammerstein scores.
The cast is great, and includes several veterans of the Broadway show, most notably former Oscar-winner Miyoshi Umecki, who is utterly enchanting as Mei Li, completely rising above the characterization of a placid "picture bride" who just sort of goes with the flow and doesn't question any of her "superiors" (men) with a performance that is sweetly comical and even a little touching at times.
Other Broadway veterans Patrick Adiarte (You would never guess he was the same guy who was that annoying Crown Prince in the movie of The King and I) and Juanita Hall (from South Pacific) are likewise great, and Jack Soo is hilarious as the hip, deadpan Sammy Fong.
Of the actors chosen just for the film, James Shigeta has a pleasent voice and acting style as Wang Ta, and Benson Fong is good enough in the rather stereotypical role of the stubbornly traditionalist Chinese father.
Reiko Sato is pretty good as Helen Chao and Marilyn Horne does a beautiful job of dubbing her in "Love, Look Away."  Aside from the great cast, the orchestrations are wonderful and better than the Broadway arrangements, and the choreography by Hermes Pan is really, really good.
And while perhaps Rodgers and Hammerstein couldn't quite bring the depth to this story of Chinese immigrants adjusting to life in San Francisco's Chinatown, they did it with great charm and overall respect.
It makes sense to finally have this story told from a truly Asian-American perspective, and hopefully, though some of Hwang's choices sound a bit odd, (Putting in something about CHinese opera, cutting Sammy Fong and the whole "Other Generation" song and idea, which is pretty crucial to the original, and making Mei Li a refugee from Chinese Communism) hopefully this new version will further allow people to reconsider their view of this show and its film version..
Nancy Kwan looks beautiful as Linda Low and Jack Shoo and the handsome James Shigata as the romantic lead are wonderfully cast.
I think his acting is just OK, but his singing STINKS, and for me, ruined the 2 songs "Sunday" and my favorite "Don't Marry me." How Richard Rodgers was OK with not dubbing his singing is beyond me.There are some pretty jazzed up orchestrations, which work well in Grant Avenue and Chop Suey, but some orchestrations are better in the Broadway version (again, "Sunday" and "Don't Marry Me.").
This was the only Rodgers and Hammerstein movie not produced and released by 20th Century Fox, and I wish it had been because then we would have a DVD.Highly recommend this movie, just sit back, enjoy some great musical numbers, acting, and a unique and involving story..
A great deal of that charm resides in Nancy Kwan, who looks sexy and gorgeous in this and played a large role in many an adolescent fantasy as a result of her appearance in this film.
Flower Drum Song is a lighthearted musical comedy set in San Francisco's Chinatown about old-fashioned Chinese and modern Chinese-Americans clashing over tradition and trying to find romance.
Some of the more memorable songs include: "I Enjoy Being a Girl" (with that famous three-way mirror scene), "Love Look Away", and "Don't Marry Me".
In its "modern" language, hairstyles, costumes, and attitudes, the film also captures the look and feel, the optimism and exuberance of that early sixties/Kennedy era perfectly.Flower Drum Song was unusual not only because it featured an (almost) all-Asian cast, but also because it depicted Chinese-Americans as _Americans_: a Chinese-American businessman, college student, banker, policeman, standup comic, yes, even a Chinese-American showgirl.
Although the characterizations are not very deep or serious, the film is a fine showcase for some early Hollywood Asian acting talent: Nancy Kwan is gorgeous and is great in all those dance numbers; Jack Soo has a hilarious deadpan humor; James Shigeta is a real heart-throb, and Miyoshi Umeki is as sweet as can be.Look for a brief cameo by Richard Rodgers during the "You be the Rock" number!.
He tries to pawn the girl off on Wang Ta (James Shigeta)...but HE'S in love with Linda also.Pretty unknown Rodgers and Hammerstein musical.
Aside from a few stereotypical Chinese characters I didn't find this racist at all--I think anyone accusing this film of that is way off base.
Now, when you consider that many of the cast were Japanese-Americans, viz., Jack Soo, James Shigeta, Miyoshi Umeki, maybe they thought it might be overloading it a bit.
Sure, there are great numbers, Grant Ave, San Francisco, California, USA...I Enjoy Being a Girl...A Hundred Million Miracles, and others, but this play never connected the same way that other Rogers and Hammerstein works did.
Keeping most of the original cast was a smart move, Myoshi Umeki is perfect as the timid young Mei Li. It's too bad Pat Suzuki couldn't also recreate her role of nightclub singer Linda Low, but Nancy Kwan is very amusing in the role.
"Flower Drum Song", like a lot of movies coming out of Hollywood, is meant to show the positive light of Chinese Americans in a time when the world was not interconnected as it is today, and in this way is meant to hopefully enlighten non-Chinese the nation over (and beyond).
The characters are stock, borderline stereotypes at times, but otherwise much in the tradition of the film portraying the traditional old guard elders emotionally clashing with their offspring who bring who new ideas and American pop culture to the home.
That, and like nearly all musicals of the time, the thing is shot entirely on stage, which has always been a sore point with me.Otherwise it's a very beautiful film, and you should see it at least once.
This has got to be the worst of the lot when it comes to Rodgers and Hammerstein stage musicals that made it to the screen.First of all, none of the songs have the memorable qualities one would expect from an R&H musical and certainly none compare favorably to the melodies from SOUTH PACIFIC, OKLAHOMA, CAROUSEL or THE KING AND I.Secondly, MIYOSHI YUMEKI, while a living doll, is naive and funny when she's called upon to be the innocent, but mawkish and unbearable whenever she has to draw sentimental tears.
And NANCY KWAN seems phony and totally unreal, even when singing "I Enjoy Being A Girl" which is about the snappiest number in the whole musical.Thirdly, all of the characters are terrible stereotypes exploited for what little humor there is in this story of an immigrant girl looking for a good match as a husband.
Mail-order bride Miyoshi Umeki (as Mei Li) arrives in San Francisco from Hong Kong, to marry nightclub owner Jack Soo (as Sammy Fong).
This long, ludicrous Rodgers and Hammerstein musical could be compared to "Chop Suey" (herein a song by Juanita Hall).
Baseball playing little brother Patrick Adiarte utters the film's best line, "Don't Take Any Wooden Chopsticks." ***** Flower Drum Song (11/9/61) Henry Koster ~ Miyoshi Umeki, Nancy Kwan, James Shigeta, Jack Soo. Another Time Another Place Thankfully Then.
The musical numbers are light and catchy, and the performers are great, especially the handsome Shigeta, the knock-out gorgeous Kwan, and the shyly beautiful Umeki.
The cast is headed by talented Jack Soo, portraying what someone has called a "Nathan Detroit" like figure; his brilliant characterization is matched by James Shigeta's as a nice but callow young student 'prince' of San Francisco's Chinatown and Miyoshi Umecki's as elfin Mei Li, the brave 'picture bride" who sneaks into the country with her father, Kam Tong, in order not to have to wait five more years to be allowed in on a quota so she can get married.
Others in the very well-trained cast of underemployed Oriental professionals include powerful Benson Fong, playing above his age as Shigeta's very Chinese father, charming Juanita Hall as his wisecracking sister-in-law, dancer Reiko Sato as the tragic Helen, lithe dancer Patrick Adiarte as Fong's Americanized number two son, plus Victor Sen- Yung, Madame Soo Yong, James Hong and many others.
Memorable songs include, "Sunday,", "Don't Marry Me", "Chop Suey", "The Other Generation", "A Hundred Million Miracles" , "You Are Beautiful, ""Fan Tan Fanny", I Enjoy Being a Girl", "Hliding Through My Memory" and "I Am Going to Like It Here".
Even when the music is passable, it seems to be imitating "Oklahoma" and "South Pacific." (Unlike in the filmed version of the latter, Juanita Hall is allowed to sing her role here.
Nearly all the Asian actors in this film playing Chinese-Americans are in fact Japanese.
The story could be fun, and there are actually songs that work - I ENJOY BEING A GIRL and Sunday are the best, you get the CHOP SUEY very sticky too - but the movie goes long, and we get bored.
A hit Broadway musical for Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, this Ross Hunter-produced movie version (although set in the modern age) looks like a relic from the 1930s.
The cast is variable: Miyoshi Umeki is indeed very sweet in the central role; Nancy Kwan is hot stuff as a cabaret entertainer; James Shigeta is fine as the young man everyone is playing matchmaker for; but Jack Soo's wild-eyed performance as hip restaurateur Sammy Fong is indicative of the director's vision (exaggerated, comic-book cuteness).
In Flower Drum Song, they attempt this using San Francisco's Chinatown.Young Mi Lei arrives from China with her father to finalize an arranged marriage to nightclub owner Sammy Fong (played by show-stealer, Jack Soo).
If they have an eye on Nancy Kwan, they should also know that there are thousands of Chinese oriented young talented actresses, who can play that role of Mei Li. Obviously the producer and the director have known nothing about Chinese culture.
Can these Rodgers & Hammerstein first spend some time to study or reaserach a bit to make some real Chinese flower drum song music instead of writing that horrible song in this musical film?
If you have once heard real flower drum song music, you will surely agree with me, really!The story itself in the movie is terrible too.
Based on the Broadawy musical, this film stars what was then a cavalcade of great Asian American actors: The beautiful and talented Nancy Kwan (also star of "The World Of Susie Wong"), James Shigeta, the sweet and so pretty Miyoshi Umeki (she just left us.
Anyway, like I said, I enjoyed this much better the second time around especially with the great look presented on the DVD.
Loved the cast of Nancy Kwan, James Shigeta, Miyoshi Umeki, Reiko Sato, Benson Fong, Juanita Hall, Victor Sen Yung, Patrick Adiarte (like me and Mom, a Filipino), and especially, Jack Soo!
Oh, and what a great way in presenting multiple Nancy Kwans in the "I Like Being a Girl" number.
But with a song like "Love Look Away", you have one of the most heart-wrenching ballads in a Broadway show, sung tenderly by a rather minor character you truly feel empathy for.
The difference between shyness and sassiness makes their acquaintance really sweet as well as those of the men they love.Then, there's the older generation, lead by Benson Fong and Juanita Hall, repeating her Broadway role, and unlike the movie version of "South Pacific", getting to sing as she had on stage.