Flower Drum Song

Henry Koster's 1961 musical was adapted from the Rodgers and Hammerstein stage show and is set in San Francisco's Chinatown. A young woman arriving from Hong Kong for an arranged marriage learns that the club owner promised to her is attached to someone else, and the story proceeds through the tension between two generations. Its place in history is contested. On one side it is Hollywood's first major studio musical with a cast almost entirely of Asian American performers, led by Nancy Kwan, James Shigeta and Miyoshi Umeki. On the other, its picture of Chinatown exoticises, and some numbers repeat the cliches of the period. That doubleness is exactly what makes the film interesting now. Who it's for: viewers interested in classic Hollywood musicals and in the history of representation. Who it's not for: anyone troubled by exoticising portrayals, or wanting a fast-moving story.