Number 67: Miyoshi Umeki as Katsumi Kelly in "Sayonara" (Best Supporting Actress Ranking)

When Anthony Quinn declared Miyoshi Umeki as the winner of the Very best Supporting Actress Oscar, the audience gasped considering that Elsa Lanchaster was the obvious favourite and also the other 3 nominees appeared to have better possibilities. But it was Miyoshi Umeki who took residence the Oscar for her quite quick function as Purple Buttons’s struggling spouse in Sayonara, a story about really like that has to battle intolerance to be successful. I feel it can be assumed that both actors, Red Buttons and Miyoshi Umeki, won their Oscars not so considerably for their acting but fairly for the people they played and their supreme tragic fate. Yes, Academy associates are sentimental.

But even with this observation, I do not want to get anything away from Miyoshi Umeki’s performance. She utilised to have a reduced place in my rating but I ‘upgraded’ her a number of spots due to the fact I simply cannot deny that, out of all the components in Sayonara, she is by considerably the most memorable – okay, this does not indicate a great deal because Sayonara is a fairly messy movie but whilst the tale of forbidden adore relating to Marlon Brando does not work, Red Buttons and Miyoshi Umeki do function.

Miyoshi Umeki has a quite small role, possibly fifteen minutes and most of the time she doesn’t say anything at all and only stands all around, getting the obedient spouse that she is, but she has a just absolutely lovable display presence that I constantly evaluate with that of Audrey Hepburn. You just have to smile when you see her, her shy actions, her anxious laugh. As Marlon Brando places it, ‘She’s just as lovable as a bug.’ Of course, I do not want to give Miyoshi Umeki gain for being adorable – becoming sweet and offering a great functionality are surely two independent shoes but she merely lights up the monitor each time she seems, she is ready to evoke an fascination in her character, a sympathy and, eventually, a emotion of great discomfort. With her distinctive display existence, she is in a position to outshine Marlon Brando and it is constantly Crimson Buttons and Miyoshi Umeki who make this movie watchable and who are the most interesting characters. Their easy minds and their unquestioning really like are heartbreaking.

But the very good factor is that Miyoshi Umeki is not only sweet – but also excellent. It is obvious that if she had been presented a greater element in which she would have gotten far more to do than smile at Pink Buttons or Marlon Brando, she would effortlessly have been up to it. But as it is, she was only offered a little little bit – her few scenes may possibly not be really outstanding but her mix of display screen presence and instincts for her function support to achieve extremely unforgettable outcomes. General, she has 3 fantastic scenes: first, when she serves Marlon Brando and Red Buttons with wine prior to supper. She does not say considerably and the scene is certainly not extremely tough but she is so loveable, so cute that you quickly slide in adore with her. She wins you more than in two seconds and so lays the foundation for the plausibility of the love between her and Purple Buttons’s character. Later on, there is a heartbreaking scene when her spouse finds out that she would like to have an procedure on her eyes to make her look American. He is furious about her and she cries, sobbing that 'Then I have excellent eyes. I idiot every person. I seem American, like Joe. I want him be proud of me.’ It is just heartbreaking and Miyoshi is fantastic in this scene. And then, later, they look at a puppet show, exactly where the lovers kill them selves since they can no lengthier encounter dwell. Miyoshi says, moved to tears, ‘It is so beautiful…They will live in yet another world, on a stunning lake…floating often with each other. Like water lilies.’ It is a banal line but Miyoshi Umeki tends to make it almost seem like poetry.

So, thinking about the low situation in this rating, the praise might be a minor way too significantly but I just want to clarify why I see much more to like in this performance than most other people do. Of course, it is almost nothing she has to do – but the minor she has to do is recognized fantastically.