Picture Bride

The film Picture Bride depicted a group of Japanese plantation workers and their picture brides. After her parents died a shameful death caused by tuberculosis, Riyo journeyed to Hawaii to marry her husband-to-be, thinking that the island was a beautiful paradise where her young, handsome groom would take care of her and they could earn a fortune. However, her dream is shattered when she finds out that her husband is nearly three times her age, the work that she does is exhausting and her pay is so low that she can only save a few dollars every month.

As stated in the presentation on Japanese-Americans, during the late 1800's and early 1900's Hawaii encouraged Japanese citizens, especially women, to emigrate to Hawaii to work. Acting upon this encouragement, Riyo begins searching for a husband in Hawaii until she hears of Matsuji. Riyo's plan was to travel to Hawaii to live and work with her husband so that they could save enough money to return to Japan. Riyo's desire to go home defines her as a dekaseginin. Takaki defined a dekaseginin as a "laborer working temporarily in a foreign country...to work hard to return home in glory" (Takaki 44). However, her desires changed when she learned that Matsuji had deceived her about his age, and she desired to return to Japan alone.

This film is very similar to the movie Eat a Bowl of Tea. Both films show Japanese and Chinese families exchanging pictures of their children in order to arrange them to get married. However, Eat a Bowl of Tea shows the picture bride system at its finest point where both Ben Loy and Mei Oi are instantly amazed by the other person's appearance and deeply fall in love with each other. This love helps them to build a strong marriage and keeps them together when they have problems. On the other hand, Picture Bride depicts the system at its worst by showing Matsuji sending a photo that was decades old in place of a more recent one to deceive his bride. This act of deception leads to Riyo wishing that she were still in Japan, and she works harder to earn more money so that she can repay her husband and return to Japan.