Picture Bride

One of the things that stuck out most to me about the film Picture Bride was Riyo's attitude toward coming to Hawaii. Her entire reason for joining Matsuji on the island was because she thought she was to marry a handsome young man and live happily ever after. In the Takaki reading from last night, it is mentioned that it was fairly common for women to marry through the picture bride system. Such is the case for Ai Miyasaki whose desire "to go to a foreign land" resulted in her being very desirable and sought after by Japanese across the ocean (Takaki 47). However, there were also cases of Japanese women being tricked into coming to America, usually as prostitutes. One such case of this is visited on Takaki page 51, where a woman was coaxed by a "smooth-talking man" and when touring the ship that would be traveling to America soon, was left onboard and forced to go and become a prostitute. Riyo's story is similar to both of these, as she is tricked, in a way, into agreeing to a marriage to what she assumes is a friendly, young farmer in Hawaii. She later finds out that she had been lied to and seeks the experience similar to that of the dekaseginin (Takaki 44); she wants to stay in Hawaii just long enough to raise money to return to Japan. Eventually, Riyo comes to discover that Hawaii is her new home, not Japan, which is similar to what many dekaseginin experience.

This film, as it relates to being Asian American, can be compared pretty accurately to the other films we've viewed in this class, Eat a Bowl of Tea and Saving Face. One strong recurring theme is the concept of honor and shame. Both of the movies depicting the Chinese American experience strongly highlight the concept of shaming one's family, which is clear in the family's reactions to the pregnancies of Mei Oi and Wilhelmina's mother, respectively. In Picture Bride, the cause of Riyo's parents' deaths (tuberculosis) is shameful and hidden from her potential suitor(s?), and so is Matsuji's age. Neither person is happy to find out what shameful things (to them) are hidden behind the lies that led to their marriage. As it relates to Critical Race Theory, all films present examples of cultural nationalism. Ben Loy and Mei Oi in Eat a Bowl of Tea experience pressures from their family and other members of the Chinese American community to abide by the cultural norms such as Ben Loy's father's insistence on raising a family, as well as Ah Song's "banishment" from the community after he sullies the reputation of Ben Loy's family. In Saving Face, it was the pressure from family for Wilhelmina's mother to marry "into a good name" after supposedly destroying the reputation of her family as she did. In this film, it is demonstrated in Matsuji's insistence that Riyo contribute more money to the fund dedicated to striking during the following harvest. Riyo, in declining to contribute more than two dollars to the strike, also declines, in turn, to being forced into accepting herself as part of the community of Japanese American workers on the island. In this action, Riyo defies cultural nationalism, but not in an attempt to cater to the United States, but in an attempt to reclaim her identity as one who wants to return to Japan.