MovieChat Forums > Sayonara (1957) Discussion > Kelly and Katsumi?give me a break.-Spoil...

Kelly and Katsumi?give me a break.-Spoilers------ ------



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I thought the suicide of Kelly and Katsumi totaly ruined a good movie.How many people who faced this problem in reality killed themselves?Probably none out of what,like 10.000 servicemen who married Japanese women as it says in the film.
I guess there are many options before killing oneself.Couldnt he just get out of the airforce?I dont think it would be that hard.Brando in the movie at one point says he would rather leave the service than leave Hana-ogi.And he was a major who had a lot more to lose than a simple sergeant.
Also,the law didnt allow for the wife to go with the husband to the US.What does
this mean?That she probably couldnt fly with him but couldnt she like go on a ship and go to the US and find him there???I mean ,one has to try all possibilities before doing something as stupid as killing themselves.

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If you feel the suicides "ruined" the movie, blame James Michener, who wrote the book. Resigning the service is not that easy; witness those who tried to leave rather than be shipped to Iraq (or for my generation, Vietnam). As far as she coming here separately, keep in mind the film is set in 1951. The war had been over for only 6 years. Seeing how the teabaggers react to immigration today in the 21st century, do you believe it was any different 60 years ago?

But throughout it all, my motto was "Dignity! Always dignity!".

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Belated, slight correction: Tea Partiers are, indeed, supportive of immigration. It's the "illegal" immigration they object to -- as do most people in most countries. Better to accept less willingly propaganda and look harder for the truth.

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I think most people are for legal immigration. Even the "tea party".
Just as most are against illegal immigration.

Can't really compare Japanese immigrants to Mexicans as there were no rivers for the Japanese to swim across.

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What an ignorant and hateful remark. I fully support tea party ideals and am married to a Vietnamese woman who came to the United States legally. It is illegal immigration that we oppose.

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Who doesn't?

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Yeah, right. You Trumper's have supported everything Donny Dotard has done in regards to making it nearly impossible to immigrate here. Stop lying, because most people stopped buying your bullshit a long time ago.

Oh, and speaking of ignorant and hateful, you Trump cultists have corned the market in that regard.

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You are wrong, wrong, WRONG! I am Hispanic and I support LEGAL immigration. I am NOT for Trump. I am against ILLEGAL immigration, as are ALL THOSE that are against illegal immigration. Do not confuse those that want to uphold LAWS with being "Trumpers."

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You're wrong. What the law meant, was that only so many Japanese could enter the U.S. each year--there was no provision for the Japanese wife to come later until the laws were changed. We knew of men who returned the states without their wives and had to wait a couple of years for new laws to take effect before their wives were able to follow them. And now, many of those husbands have passed, and their wives still live here.

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"there was no provision for the Japanese wife to come later until the laws were changed. We knew of men who returned the states without their wives and had to wait a couple of years for new laws to take effect before their wives were able to follow them."

Okay, so instead of working to get your wife over here, and maybe waiting a couple of years, just commit murder-suicide. Seems kind of rash.
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It's a couple of weeks later, and I've just finished reading the book, in which the suicide makes a bit more sense. In the movie, Joe is played by Red Buttons, a grown, almost middle-aged man. Suicide in his case makes less sense. A grown man probably wouldn't be so impulsive and foolish. But in Michener's novel Joe is a nineteen-year-old kid, and Katsumi is probably about the same age. In that case, impulsive suicide is somewhat more plausible. Also, the novel goes into greater depth about how suicide was romanticized in Japanese culture.

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You're certainly entitled to your own opinion, but I thought it was full of impact and insight. The play before they killed themselves foreshadowed it; he was following her cultural cue. Perhaps you don't have enough of an understanding of Japanese culture before the war, and directly after.

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are you in jr high?? James Michner wrote the boo.

suzycreamcheese RIP Heath Ledger 1979-2008

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