Cheap Picture Bride (DVD) (Yôki Kudô, Akira Takayama) (Kayo Hatta) Price

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Customer Reviews of Picture Bride

"See the real paradise."
The film "Picture Bride" is a simple story of Riyo (Youki Kudoh), a young Japanese girl who travels to Hawaii in the early 1900s to meet her new husband, Matsuji (Akira Takayama). This is an arranged marriage, and both parties are required to show the photographs they have of each other to the authorities as a means of identification. Unfortunately, Matsuji's photo is about 20 years old, and Riyo is shocked when she meets her husband for the first time. While the wedding goes on as planned--Riyo doesn't actually have much choice here--the marriage begins on a very shaky footing.

Riyo's frail appearance belies her strong, determined character. From the moment she arrives at the sugar plantation where she is to work as a field labourer, she decides to start saving money to pay back her husband and eventually return to Japan--and this isn't easy earning just pennies a day from back-breaking labour. Riyo meets and befriends Kana (Tamlyn Tomita) who earns extra money by taking in laundry. Riyo soon assists Kana and starts hoarding money for the trip home. Their friendship ameliorates Riyo's loneliness but does little to improve relations with the well-meaning, kind Matsuji.

Apparently, more than 20,000 women travelled to Hawaii as 'picture brides.' Riyo's story is just one of many, but no doubt, her experiences mirror the experience of picture brides in general. Conditions in the sugar cane fields were harsh and sometimes hazardous, but the film also emphasizes that a racial hierarchy exists in the sugar plantation--as badly as the Japanese were treated by the European overseers, Filipinos appear to be treated even worse. It seems ironic at best that thousands of people found themselves as dis-enfranchised labourers in a part of the world that is so idyllic. Living in paradise does not bring happiness or even contentment; happiness is an inner state, and the story illustrates this effectively. Fans of Toshiro Mifune will be pleased to note that he makes a brief appearance as a travelling entertainer. The film includes many scenes of breathtaking beauty, but by far the most memorable is the scene in which paper lanterns are placed on the river to remember the dead--displacedhuman.

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This movie is PRICELESS and WONDERFUL! Now where is the DVD?
I don't understand why Miramax has put out plenty of DVD's already and some not even worth the plastic they are burned into, and has NOT taken the time to release this classic on DVD??? Hey Miramax, if you are listening, please, please, please, please put this movie on DVD!!! Even without special features, it would be worth letting the public watch in DVD-quality!!!

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Lanterns on the Water
This gentle and beautifully photographed film takes place in 1918 Honolulu, Hawaii and deals in a very real manner with the difficulties of being a Picture Bride. During this time period many young Japanese, Okinawan, and Korean girls traveled to Hawaii to be wives of men who had saved up enough money to send for them. Rijo (Youki Kudoh) finds it her only option when her father dies and a secret forces her to leave Japan.

She will discover her mate Matsuji (Akira Takahami) to be much older than the picture he sent and life in the sugar cane fields not suited to a city girl. But she will also discover, ever so slowly, a beautiful place where the dead often visit the living as ghosts on the wind. She resists her life and is saving up to return to Japan while making it clear there will be no love for Matsuji.

As time passes she finds a friend in Kana (Tamlyn Tomita), who lets her help with laundry she does after the back breaking work in the fields to earn money so she can leave Hawaii and return to her home. The two young women become close until tragedy strikes. Matsuji has done everything he knows to make the pretty Rijo stay and be his wife. He has even taken Kana's advice and played 'Rudolph Valentino' but to no avail.

After Kana is taken away she tells Matsuji her secret and flees to the ocean for home. But Rijo has forgotten this is a place where ghosts are in the wind and she will see Kana once more. This film is about love and ghosts and will end with lanterns on the water to light the journey for the dead. As Matsuji tells Rijo, when he was in Japan he did not believe in ghosts but here in Hawaii he feels it is right.

A film of great and gentle beauty filled with fine performances and lush cinematography, this is one you simply can't miss....