Blu-ray Review Flower Drum Song Blu-ray Review (1 Viewer)

[Will Krupp]

Are you saying that Juanita Hall literally wore "yellow face" in terms of her makeup in the film? I'm not sure if that's true. I think she was an African-American whose features and coloring just happened to have a somewhat Asian appearance, which is why her most famous role was Bloody Mary in SOUTH PACIFIC.

I believe "yellow face" is the generally used derogatory term for any non-Asian actor playing an Asian character in film and doesn't actually refer to yellow makeup, specifically.

 

[Michael1]

She’s not Asian.

I know she's not Asian. I was asking if you meant that she used makeup to make herself look Asian, or if you just meant that she was doing "yellow face" in the sense that she is a non-Asian playing an Asian, with makeup or not.

 

[Michael1]

I believe "yellow face" is the generally used derogatory term for any non-Asian actor playing an Asian character in film and doesn't actually refer to yellow makeup, specifically.

I know, but Noel Aguirre wrote that Juanita fall was "wearing yellow face" for the movie, so I wondered if he was referring to actual makeup. No big deal, I'm sure a lot of people object to the casting regardless.

 

[Noel Aguirre]

I know she's not Asian. I was asking if you meant that she used makeup to make herself look Asian, or if you just meant that she was doing "yellow face" in the sense that she is a non-Asian playing an Asian, with makeup or not.

I know, but Noel Aguirre wrote that Juanita fall was "wearing yellow face" for the movie, so I wondered if he was referring to actual makeup. No big deal, I'm sure a lot of people object to the casting regardless.

I believe "yellow face" is the generally used derogatory term for any non-Asian actor playing an Asian character in film and doesn't actually refer to yellow makeup, specifically.

Correct- it refers to her appropriating Chinese manners and talking in Charlie Chan style dialect. But yes her makeup is giving me a “look” a la Rex Harrison in Anna and the King. But basically I was simply asking the reviewer who mentioned that there are Asians of non-Chinese decent whether the special features mentioned anything about her- I wasn’t objecting I was merely inquiring !

 

[Matt Hough]

But basically I was simply asking the reviewer who mentioned that there are Asians of non-Chinese decent whether the special features mentioned anything about her- I wasn’t objecting I was merely inquiring !

Yes, it's mentioned in the bonus features.

 

[Michael1]

Correct- it refers to her appropriating Chinese manners and talking in Charlie Chan style dialect. But yes her makeup is giving me a “look” a la Rex Harrison in Anna and the King. But basically I was simply asking the reviewer who mentioned that there are Asians of non-Chinese decent whether the special features mentioned anything about her- I wasn’t objecting I was merely inquiring !

Thanks for clarifying. I do not agree that Juanita Hall talks in "Charlie Chan style dialect" in the movie. The only person who comes close to doing so is Benson Fong as the father, because he is supposed to be the least Americanized of all the characters and the one who is not as fluent in English and still retains a Chinese accent.

 

[roxy1927]

Leave Juanita Hall alone! Love her performances. Anyway she was a nice Irish Jersey girl. From Keyport!

 

[MartinP.]

Juanita Hall was acting a role.

--acting
definition; Merriam-Webster
the art or practice of representing a character on a stage or before cameras

Too many people nowadays confuse acting with being.

 

[bujaki]

Juanita Hall was acting a role.

--acting
definition; Merriam-Webster
the art or practice of representing a character on a stage or before cameras

Too many people nowadays confuse acting with being.

So true, so true.

 

[haineshisway]

Yeah, I'm sure the offended don't watch Mr. Brynner and Ms. Rita Moreno in The King and I without the heads exploding.

 

[bujaki]

Yeah, I'm sure the offended don't watch Mr. Brynner and Ms. Rita Moreno in The King and I without the heads exploding.

Mine exploded twice the minute Carlos Rivas showed up with Moreno.

 

[JimMiller]

Marilyn Horne The greatest mezzo-soprano in my lifetime IMO Yes.
She also did Carmen Jones. Did she dub for Porgy and Bess ?

She did indeed dub Dorothy Dandridge. Horne was the greatest Rossini mezzo i have ever seen and heard!

 

[roxy1927]

There is a wonderful interview with her on youtube with the NEA. It's older than I thought. Maybe 2010? I just saw it yesterday and it is well worth your time. She was in the first opera I ever saw Le Prophete at the Met. And an especially memorable night was a recital with orchestra with Caballe doing a number of great bel canto duets they were famous for. I wish I had kept the program. I can't believe there was once a time when these singers existed. There is a recording of her doing the Immolation scene. I couldn't believe she did it. Get it. Or at least you must listen to it.

 

[John Maher_289910]

I love the ballets and feel they add to the story and give a much needed break to much of the corniness. The same reason I felt the original Somewhere stage ballet should have been added back to the recent remake of West Side Story that was supposedly trying to be more faithful to its source. It would have given a breather to the depressing arc of that storyline especially with all its newly added heavy handed character expositions.

I detest the Spielberg WSS, but did love that not once, but twice, you heard the Somewhere Ballet music, which doesn't exist, at all, in the vastly superior original film.

 

[roxy1927]

I didn't want to detest the new WSS but neither did I want to like it as I love the original film and how dare Spielberg compete with Wise and Robbins. I liked it very much to my amazement and I thought it was great that they used music not in the first film. I was pretty surprised.

 

[Charles Smith]

I detest the Spielberg WSS, but did love that not once, but twice, you heard the Somewhere Ballet music, which doesn't exist, at all, in the vastly superior original film.

Yes, it does. The ballet itself didn't appear in it, but the whole "Nightmare" part of the ballet was added to the Prologue in the first film, accounting for much of the difference in length between the two Prologues. And as I recall, the quiet "drumbeat" of the timpani/cello instrumental introduction to the ballet was also played as Tony climbs into Maria's bedroom in the first film.

 

[John Maher_289910]

Yes, you're right, of course. I was speaking solely about the main, softer, but spritely part of the ballet. It plays twice in the new film, but yes, snippets of other parts of the ballet are in the original film.

 

[Noel Aguirre]

I detest the new WSS wholeheartedly and would have preferred the ballet added than any of the new character expositions added which would have netted no time added. Especially the Jets buying the gun in the bar scene.

 

[Noel Aguirre]

There is a wonderful interview with her on youtube with the NEA. It's older than I thought. Maybe 2010? I just saw it yesterday and it is well worth your time. She was in the first opera I ever saw Le Prophete at the Met. And an especially memorable night was a recital with orchestra with Caballe doing a number of great bel canto duets they were famous for. I wish I had kept the program. I can't believe there was once a time when these singers existed. There is a recording of her doing the Immolation scene. I couldn't believe she did it. Get it. Or at least you must listen to it.

She is a gift sent from heaven.

 

[Matt Hough]

She did indeed dub Dorothy Dandridge. Horne was the greatest Rossini mezzo i have ever seen and heard!

Yes, Marilynn (as she was billed) did dub Dorothy in Carmen Jones. Adele Addison dubbed her in Porgy and Bess.