Popular reviews

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  Review by Rafael "Parker!!" Jovine ★★★ 7

  30th Review for The Collab Weekly Movie Watch

  When "Crazy Rich Asians" was announced I remember many promoting it in the media as the first film in almost thirty years to feature an all-Asian cast, but apparently all these Gen X, Z, Millennials and one or two Boomers weren't so into the old classic movies since the honour of being the first groundbreaking film to feature such a cast was actually an Oscar-nominated musical from '61 based on a play by the team that brought us classics like The Sound of Music, Oklahoma! and The King and I, among others. As one would expect from something from that era, the film is at times somewhat racist, but at other times…

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  Review by Ziglet_mir ★★★★ 4

  This carries immense Golden Age Hollywood musical swag, though while some songs are mediocre the character interactions and asides are entirely on point, posing commentary on the conservative Chinese culture and the modern American culture. The film is quite grounded in its plot yet manages to burst at the seems with liveliness and wackiness. Nancy Kwan and James Shigeta are simply gorgeous people to look at while Benson Fong, Jack Soo, Juanita Hall and Patrick Adiarte fill out the rest of the great moments this film has. I am pretty grateful to not only be reminded of Jack Soo, but also find major delight in the fact he can swoon with a great voice and be solid comic relief. What…

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  Review by Ziglet_mir ★★★★ 3

  Second watch of this one in under 4 months. Viewed with the Amazing Edith's *Collab Film Group*.

  I guess I am what you would call a fanatic of musicals and theater at large, and while I agree theater does not always translate well to the screen, Flower Drum Song is one of those shows that has the power of dazzling you with lavish set design and awesome production value. Sprinkle that with some Nancy Kwan, James Shigeta, and Jack Soo and you're in for an easy good time--politics and 60s era society aside. Sometimes I think we over-intellectualize stuff until we are one giant confused mass of grey matter. This is a wonderful little film with a positive outlook on dreams, love,…

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  Review by Stephen M ★★★ 15

  COLLAB FILM CLUB

  Mixed response to this and I usually like musicals. I’d seen this years ago but it fell a bit flat upon a rewatch - as a musical, a comic romance and a commentary on the dilemmas of keeping one’s heritage in a homogeneously-oriented America. Some awkward cultural missteps with only a few good musical numbers to boost it up.

  First though, the positives. It was the first major Hollywood production to use a predominantly Asian-American cast. This just wasn’t done in 1961. Second, James Shigeta as Wang Ta the male lead. Strikingly handsome with a Gregory Peck-like voice and manner, he was one of the few Asian - he was Japanese-American - males to get lead roles…

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  Review by Joshua Dysart ★★★★ 1

  I know it would’ve made life very hard for arranged bride Mei Li and her father, but, c’mon... it’s Wang Ta and Helen Chao forever. You know it’s true. If this movie were being honest with itself, it’s gotta be Helen and Ta. Those two are made for one another. Generationally and culturally American in the same ways, already good friends with one another, both gorgeous. I hear that Helen kills herself in the novel, so... that’s a bummer.

  Jack Soo is fucking incredible in this. Amazing. Also, Patrick Adiarte is a goddamned movie star. There’s a lot of big, wonderful performances here. The music numbers start relatively small and boring, and they’re generally not all hits, but there’s a…

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  Review by Vinod Shankar 🍊 ★★½ 2

  It's a shame that this progressive, charming cast is wasted in service of, not breaking down, but fostering and preserving Asian stereotypes that likely influenced American views of Asians for years afterward.

  There may be some good undercurrents in there for some balance of feelings, but mostly this film is chop suey: made with good, exotic ingredients to appear as Chinese cuisine, but in actuality, an Americanized meal that misses the point entirely.

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  Review by Maddy Flowers Sheehy ★★★★ 2

  The high point of this gorgeously-gaudy, Chinese-American extravaganza was Helen's "Love Look Away" - filled with unrequited love, she sings Eponine-style of her feelings towards Ta, as the rain falls and the Chinese New Year celebration goes on without her and soon her ballad turns ballet turns performance art, with agate-tinged floors and gowns to mend and masked men surrounding the beautiful Helen. This energy, from pained affection to breathtaking dance, is what I love from Rogers & Hammerstein. Edelweiss, Ten Minutes Ago, People Will Say We're In Love -- R&H have such a sweet way of exploring these feelings of love, not too deep, but human enough, all while prioritizing the thrill of a show above all else.

  This isn't…

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  Review by theironcupcake ★★★★ 3

  "In my citizenship class, I have learned: 'We, the people of the United States, are entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happy times!'"

  1961 was an interesting year for representations of race and ethnicity in Hollywood. It was the time when two of the Puerto Rican main characters in West Side Story were portrayed by white actors (Natalie Wood and George Chakiris); Tony Curtis was cast as Native American war hero Ira Hamilton Hayes in The Outsider; the Japanese neighbor/love interest in the Rosalind Russell rom-com A Majority of One was played by Alec Guinness and >Breakfast at Tiffany’s “Mr. Yunioshi” was Mickey Rooney; more positively, A Raisin in the Sun was a prestige drama featuring an all-black cast including…

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  Review by 🥀 e m m é ★★★ 5

  I guessed that this would be dated and problematic and it was, but also I *needed* more James Shigeta. And that charismatic man singing? Whoops! I’m in love, just like all three of the women in this musical!

  Unsurprisingly, the film appropriates Chinese culture and reduces it to something very bland/simplistic and I guess, therefore palatable to white audiences of 1961? There're certainly plenty of uncomfortable moments, but since I’d braced myself for worse, I still ended up enjoying the performances from the truly glorious cast.

  Because honest, the dancing was perfect and the choreography was amazing! Reiko Sato was jaw-droppingly talented! Nancy Kwan was delightful on screen! Jack Soo was very endearing and hilarious! And obviously James Shigeta 🤍

  So, I don’t quite know what I feel about Flower Drum Song. It was a major breakthrough at the time to have a lavish film showcasing Asian-American performers, but darn, there are also issues with how these characters were presented!

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  Review by MushiMinion ★★★ 3

  Ol' Sammy Dangerfield has got himself into a pickle. The Chinese gal from the mainland he'd been arranged to marry has just shown up on his doorstep. Problem is, he's got a dame on the side he's planning on going steady with and no one will humor his request to annul the proposal. No respect, I tells ya! No respect at all. Not to give away too much, but with a little help from racist Hollywood movies and a damp behind, things might work out for ol' Sammy after all.

  There are two ways to approach critiquing Flower Drum Song. On the one hand, this feels like surface-level diversity. If you were to close your eyes at any time during…

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  Review by Gentry ★★★

  “You wear incense to keep evil spirits away?”
  “Oh, no. To attract them!”

  Crazy, rich, singing Asians. Is that a reductive comparison? I don’t know. This still feels very fresh, has lots of jokes (including at least the third one I’ve heard so far about how white people assume chop suey is a common Chinese dish), and the same kind of intergenerational conflict of personal love vs. duty that you’ll find in any 90s/aughts romantic comedy.

  A big deal, of course, with a majority cast of Asian-American actors. The caveat is that the story had to be written, approved and bankrolled by white men. It had to have the co-sign and gravitas of lyrics and music by the great Rodgers…

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  Review by louferrigno ★★½ 3

  Musical extraordinaires Rodgers and Hammerstein are known for quite a number of their lighthearted works, able to tackle serious topics in a way digestible to (most) folks around the world, with songs from The Sound of Music, Oklahoma!, South Pacific, or The King an I instantly identifiable, even if one has never watched the original musicals they came from simply through their osmosis into the wider canon of pop culture. Flower Drum Song lands into the category of "they also did that one", it spawned only one song you might have heard of, it did decently both financially and critically but nothing outstanding, and has been rarely performed after its initial production for reasons I'll probably get into if I…