The Wind Cannot Read

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The Wind Cannot Read
"The Wind Cannot Read" (1958).jpg
Original British quad poster
Directed by Ralph Thomas
Written by Richard Mason (novel and screenplay)
Produced by Betty E. Box
Earl St. John
Starring Dirk Bogarde
Yoko Tani
Ronald Lewis
John Fraser
Cinematography Ernest Steward
Edited by Frederick Wilson
Music by Angelo Francesco Lavagnino
Distributed by J. Arthur Rank Film Distributors
Release date
  • 1958 (1958)
Running time
115 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

The Wind Cannot Read is a 1958 British drama film directed by Ralph Thomas and starring Dirk Bogarde, Yoko Tani, Ronald Lewis and John Fraser. [1] It was based on the 1946 novel by Richard Mason, who also wrote the screenplay.

Contents

Plot

The film takes place in Burma and India during World War II.

A British officer falls in love with his Japanese instructor at a military language school. They start a romance, but she is regarded as the enemy and is not accepted by his countrymen. They marry in secret and plan on spending his two weeks' leave together. When one of the other officers is injured, he is sent into the field as an interrogator. Later he is captured by the Japanese army when he is patrolling with a brigadier and an Indian driver in a Japanese-controlled zone. He escapes and returns to his own lines, only to discover that his wife is suffering from a brain tumour. Although the doctor initially gives her good odds of surviving, she dies after an operation.

Cast

Title

The film's title derives from a Japanese poem, quoted in Basil Chamberlain's 1907 book A Handbook of Colloquial Japanese as: [2]

kono hana wa / kataku oru-na! / to iu tate fuda mo / yomenu kaze ni wa / zehi mo nashi

The poem appears in the title sequence of the film translated as:

Though on a sign it is written: "Don't pluck these blossoms" – it is useless against the wind, which cannot read.

It is also printed in the front matter of the original novel, [3] and is on the tombstone of Mason, who died in 1997.[ citation needed ]

Production

In 1955 David Lean agreed to film Richard Mason's novel The Wind Cannot Read, the story of a romance between a British officer and a self-exiled Japanese woman in India circa 1943, during World War II. [4]

Originally Lean considered making the lead character a Canadian and offered the part to Glenn Ford. [5] Lean also offered the role to Kenneth More, who was unsure about whether the public would accept him in the part and turned it down. It was a decision More later regarded as "the greatest mistake I ever made professionally". [6] Lean had completed a script in collaboration with Mason and cast Keiko Kishi as the girl, but disagreed with Alexander Korda, who was to have produced the film and the project fell through. [7]

Lean had already entered into discussions with Sam Spiegel, regarding a film version of Pierre Boulle's novel The Bridge on the River Kwai. After Korda's death in 1956, the rights to Mason's novel were sold to Rank Film Productions, who assigned the project to the team of Betty Box and Ralph Thomas. [8]

Filming took place on location in India in early 1958, with Dirk Bogarde in the main role. [9] [10]

Ralph Thomas later said he thought Sir John Davis of Rank "very bravely" authorised location-filming in India "because he trusted David Lean's judgement that it was a splendid book. It was a real three-handkerchief picture, which I thoroughly enjoyed making, and Dirk was very good in it." [11]

Reception

Box office

The film was one of the most popular at the British box office in 1958. [12] [13] Kinematograph Weekly listed it as being "in the money" at the British box office in 1958. [14]

Critical reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "This adaptation of Richard Mason's novel is what the trade describes as a 'woman's picture', in this case complete with exotic music and a cloying theme song. Its central love story is alternately coy, sentimental and pathetic, and the emotions of the audience are touched in such a way as to arouse sympathy, without becoming too painful for comfort. The war episodes, involving Japanese brutalities, are presumably intended for those in need of sterner stuff; at any rate, they fit rather uneasily into the monotonous, gentle pattern of the rest. Visually, the film benefits from its Indian locations: crowded bazaars, city streets and picturesque views of the Taj Mahal provide genuine, if predictable, local colour. Yoko Tani has a distinctive charm and plays with some feeling; Dirk Bogarde, though, seems over-reserved and uncomfortable, especially when confronted with pseudo-poetic dialogue." [15]

Accolades

Songwriter Peter Hart received the 1958 Ivor Novello award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically for the title song, performed by Vera Lynn. [16]

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References

  1. ↑ "The Wind Cannot Read". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 31 December 2023.
  2. ↑ Chamberlain, Basil (1907). A Handbook of Colloquial Japanese. London: C. Lockwood & son. p. 488.
  3. ↑ Mason, Richard. "The Wind Cannot Read". Google Books. Retrieved 11 April 2024.
  4. ↑ STEPHEN WATTS (19 June 1955). "SCANNING THE CURRENT BRITISH SCREEN SCENE: DIRECTOR DAVID LEAN MOVES EASTWARD -- WAR EPIC --COLUMBIA'S AGENDA". New York Times. p. X7.
  5. ↑ Schallert, Edwin (22 October 1956). "Monroe Specifications Named for 'Karamazov,; Lean Offers Ford Film". Los Angeles Times. p. A11.
  6. ↑ Kenneth More, More or Less, Hodder & Staughton, 1978 p 228
  7. ↑ "BFI". Archived from the original on 3 August 2013. Retrieved 3 August 2013.
  8. ↑ STEPHEN WATTS. (3 March 1957). "ON BRITAIN'S VARIED MOVIE FRONTS: AMERICAN STAR PROBLEM --CHAPLIN'S ROCK 'N' ROLL--CRITICISM POSER UP-TO-DATE "KING" GALLIC CRITIQUE HEADED FOR INDIA OUT OF THE PAST". New York Times. p. 113.
  9. ↑ "JAPANESE FILM STARS FOR INDIA: SHOOTING OF PICTURE". The Times of India. 18 January 1958. p. 11.
  10. ↑ British Cinema of the 1950s: The Decline of Deference by Sue Harper, Vincent Porter. Oxford University Press, 2003 p 53
  11. ↑ Brian McFarlane, An Autobiography of British Cinema 1997 p 558
  12. ↑ "Britain's Money Pacers 1958". Variety. 15 April 1959. p. 60.
  13. ↑ Thumim, Janet. "The popular cash and culture in the postwar British cinema industry". Screen. Vol. 32, no. 3. p. 259.
  14. ↑ Billings, Josh (18 December 1958). "Others in the Money". Kinematograph Weekly. p. 7.
  15. ↑ "The Wind Cannot Read". The Monthly Film Bulletin . 25 (288): 87. 1 January 1958. ProQuest   1305823641 – via ProQuest.
  16. ↑ Lister, David (28 May 1994). "Pop ballads bite back in lyrical fashion". The Independent .
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