YMMV / Sayonara

• Alternate Character Interpretation:
  • Hana-ogi's initial aloofness to Gruver is said to be rooted in her prejudice towards Americans. But if you remember that Fumiko was regularly sneaking out to see Bailey, perhaps Hana-ogi avoided Gruver because she was worried he saw her as just a potential fling the way Bailey and Fumiko's affair was. And since the Matsobayashi would dismiss any girl discovered fraternising, perhaps she looked down on Fumiko for doing that and felt she was above it. It was only until Katsumi spoke of Gruver's character that she gave him a chance.
  • Does Bailey actually care more for Fumiko than he lets on? Trying to take a date into a very exclusive club and arguing on her behalf is going above and beyond for a mere fling after all. But considering the prejudice towards interracial pairings, perhaps he feels he needs to pretend it's just a fling to avoid harsher treatment. As the law banning taking Japanese wives home to America gets lifted, Bailey and Fumiko might have a better chance after all.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Miyoshi Umeki is the sixth billed cast member but she became the first Asian actress to win an Academy Award.
• Fair for Its Day:
  • Japan is portrayed as a land of geishas, Takarazuka, kabuki, bunraku, pagoda, arched bridges, and cherry blossoms; Japanese women as delicate doll-like creatures who exist to scrub their husbands' backs — demure lotus blossom stereotype right out the wazoo. Still, when it came to sympathetic portrayals of Japan and interracial relationships in 1957, the pickings were pretty slim.
  • The film was also shot on-location and featured authentic Japanese performers (the exception being Ricardo Montalban as Nakamura).
  • Hana-ogi experiences Career Versus Man but that's because her career choice expects her to remain unmarried for her whole life, and become a tutor once she retires. In the end, she doesn't give up her career, but expresses a desire to keep performing while still having a family of her own.
• Genius Bonus:
  • The middle of the movie has a scene set during the Tanabata festival. Tanabata honors two legendary Star-Crossed Lovers who married quickly but were forced apart. Sure enough after this scene Kelly is reassigned back to America.
  • Hana-ogi also takes Gruver on a date to the Meoto Iwa - two rocks joined by a rope. The rocks represent the union of man and woman, symbolising how Gruver will convince Hana-ogi to marry him.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • In real life Marlon Brando would later have an interracial relationship - with Vietnamese actress France Nuyen - that ended with infidelity on his part.
  • Hana-ogi references the bombing of Kobe during World War II. Grave of the Fireflies would later show just how bad said bombing was.
• He Really Can Act: Red Buttons was mainly known for his comedy work and musicals on Broadway. This foray into drama saw him winning an Oscar for his performance as Kelly.
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • Gruver stands at the bottom of the bridge as the Matsobayashi dancers cross every day, just to see Hana-ogi. One day he tests her by hiding behind a tree as they go by. He can see Hana-ogi looking around, wondering where he is - confirming that she is interested in him.
  • After seeing the Matsobayashi perform, Bailey stands up and claps in Fumiko's direction. While she takes her bows, she gives an adorable blush and is clearly pleased that her crush came to see her.
  • Hana-ogi's speech where she reveals a) she speaks fluent English and b) she grew up hating Americans because of the war, but has abandoned that hatred and knows that Gruver is a good man.
  • Gruver gets a growing Big Brother Instinct towards Katsumi. Initially not approving of the marriage, he soon warms to her and in the scene mentioned under Tear Jerker - he tries to cheer her up. What's more is that Hana-ogi says Katsumi vouched for him and told her he was a good person.
  • Gruver's passionate Heroism Motive Speech, where he tells Hana-ogi that their "duties and obligations" to their families, Matsobayashi, the military and everyone else mean doodly squat compared to their duties to be together and get married if they're truly in love.
  • Hana-ogi's speech announcing that she's accepted Gruver's proposal.
    "I hope to keep on dancing and one day teach children to dance. My own children."^note As the star of the theatre troupe, she'd be expected to remain unmarried and become a tutor after she retired.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Miyoshi Umeki is introduced as a bride-to-be whose picture is shown to another character. Her next Hollywood film Flower Drum Song has her being a picture bride as a plot point.
  • Just two years before this, Marlon Brando had appeared in Yellowface to play a Japanese man in the film version of The Teahouse of the August Moon. And Miyoshi Umeki would star in the TV remake a few years later.
• Moe: Katsumi especially in scenes where she interacts with Gruver. At his first dinner at her house, she blushes as she speaks English to him and he bows back - to which she gives the most adorable giggle. This makes her death all the more heart breaking.
• Moment of Awesome: Lloyd's awesome declaration of love to Hana-ogi on why they should ignore their "duties and obligations" to be apart.
  "That's right. We do. We do have duties and obligations, and the first obligation we have is to love each other. To become man and wife and raise some clean, sweet children. And give them the very best that they know how. And if we don't meet that obligation, we ain't gonna be any good to anybody."
• Narm Charm: Marlon Brando's southern accent teeters on the edge of being ridiculous but still works. Word of God says he had this reaction when he first heard it too.
• Platonic Writing, Romantic Reading: Gruver develops a Big Brother Instinct for Katsumi, but the chemistry between Marlon Brando and Miyoshi Umeki is definitely there - and there are scenes where Katsumi gets embarrassed around him as one would for a crush. He even kisses her on her wedding day, and Hana-ogi later says that Katsumi spoke of "how tenderly you kissed her".
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • Miyoshi Umeki would later originate the role of Mei Li in Flower Drum Song.
  • James Garner would become better known for his series Maverick and The Great Escape.
• Stoic Woobie: The universe keeps conspiring to make Kelly's life difficult but he never complains.
• Tear Jerker:
  • The Reveal that Katsumi had been planning to get surgery on her eyes to look more "American". She even thought Kelly would be happy! It's the only time in the movie that she cries.
  • Kelly and Katsumi coming home from a night out to discover that the military has boarded up their house and labelled it "off-limits".
  • To say nothing of Gruver's discovery that Kelly and Katsumi died in a suicide pact rather than be separated.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Other than the back alley surgery scene, the film doesn't make much of an attempt to explore how Katsumi deals with the prejudice towards her marriage - especially if the anti-American sentiment is still strong in Kobe as Hana-ogi implies.
• Values Dissonance: When Kelly discovers that Katsumi was planning to get surgery, he grabs her by the hand and throws her into the room. For a character who is meant to be 100% sympathetic, this would not fly today.
• The Woobie:
  • Katsumi just fell in love with an American man and all she wants is to be a good wife - but the universe keeps putting her through the Trauma Conga Line.
  • Hana-ogi likewise is revealed to have been sold into the Matso-Bashi because her family were poor - and thus she feels great loyalty to them. She's even willing to abandon her relationship with Gruver because of it.