Almond eyes and lotus flowers
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Almond eyes and lotus flowers |
| Original title | Flower drum song |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English , Cantonese |
| Publishing year | 1961 |
| length | 128 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Henry Koster |
| script | Joseph Fields |
| production | Ross Hunter |
| music | Richard Rodgers |
| camera | Russell Metty |
| cut | Milton Carruth |
| occupation | |
| |
Almond eyes and lotus blossoms is an American film musical from 1961 by Henry Koster. The script was based on the novel "Flower Drum Song" by CY Lee and the 1957 musical by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein .
action
Mei Li is a young woman coming to San Francisco from Hong Kong. She has been promised as a bride to nightclub owner Sammy Fong. Sammy does not want to follow the old traditions of his homeland. He wants to marry the singer and dancer Linda Low. So he tries to deport Mei Li to the Wang family, who are looking for a bride for their eldest son, Wang Ta. But Wang Ta is also wooing Linda, who in turn is only interested in Ta's money.
Ta's graduation from university is to be celebrated along with Madame Liang's graduate school. Ta's engagement to Linda is announced, making Mei Li sad and Sammy angry. Sammy hosts the Chinese New Year celebration at his nightclub and invites the Wangs too. When the Wangs unexpectedly see Linda's lewd dance, they immediately break off the engagement. Ta realizes his mistake and confesses his love to Mei Li. However, she rejects him and wants to force Sammy to fulfill his contractual obligations and to marry her. During the wedding ceremony, Mei Li confessed that she had entered the country illegally, which invalidated the contract. Ta is happy and ready to marry her so that she can stay in the country. Linda and Sammy decide to have a double wedding.
Reviews
The lexicon of the international film about the film: "Unimaginative, kitschy-sentimental, overly long musical with hair-raising German songs."
The Variety complains that the charm and grace of the Broadway musical in the film adaptation is crushed by sheer opulence and glamor.
Bosley Crowther of the New York Times, on the other hand, praises the film as colorful, imaginative and melodic.
Awards
The film has been nominated for numerous film awards. In 1962 he received Oscar nominations in the categories of Best Production Design (Color) , Best Costumes (Color) ( Irene Sharaff ), Best Cinematography (Color) , Best Sound (Waldon O. Watson) and Best Film Music .
He also received two nominations for the Golden Globe in the categories of Best Film (Musical) and Best Actress (Musical) (Miyoshi Umeki).
At the Laurel Awards ceremony , the film took second place as Top Musical , while Juanita Hall came fourth as Best Supporting Actress .
The Directors Guild of America nominated Henry Koster for the DGA Award and the Writers Guild of America nominated Joseph Fields for the WGA Award .
Alfred Newman , who arranged the original Richard Rodgers music for the film, was nominated for a Grammy for the released album .
In 2008 the film was entered into the National Film Registry .
background
The film premiered on November 9, 1961 in the USA and was released in German cinemas on April 26, 1962.
The Broadway musical premiered on December 1, 1958 and was played 600 times. In 1959 the piece was nominated for the Tony Award . Miyoshi Umeki and Juanita Hall play their stage roles in the film, while debutant Jack Soo appeared on stage in a different role.
George Chakiris can be seen in a minor supporting role as a dancer .
Production designers Alexander Golitzen and Joseph C. Wright were responsible for setting the film . The dance numbers were choreographed by Hermes Pan .
Songs
- A Hundred Million Miracles - sung by Miyoshi Umeki (repeated later and sung again by Miyoshi Umeki and Nancy Kwan)
- Fan Tan Fannie - sung by Nancy Kwan
- The Other Generation - sung by Benson Fong, Juanita Hall, Patrick Adiarte, Cherylene Lee and Virginia Lee
- I Enjoy Being a Girl - sung by Nancy Kwan
- I Am Going to Like It Here - sung by Miyoshi Umeki
- Chop Suey - sung by Juanita Hall and James Shigeta
- You Be the Rock - sung by Nancy Kwan
- Grant Avenue - sung by Nancy Kwan
- Gliding Through My Memoree - sung by Victor Sen Yung (later performed again by James Shigeta)
- Love, Look Away - sung by Reiko Sato
- You Are Beautiful - sung by James Shigeta
- Sunday - sung by Jack Soo and Nancy Kwan
- Don't Marry Me - sung by Jack Soo and Miyoshi Umeki
Note: Nancy Kwan's vocal voice was dubbed by BJ Parker. Reiko Sato was dubbed by opera singer Marilyn Horne .
Web links
- Almond eyes and lotus flowers in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Almond eyes and lotus blossoms. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original dated November 25, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?_r=2&res=9C0CEFDD143CEE32A25753C1A9679D946091D6CF
