Sayonara (1957)

Miiko Taka: Hana-Ogi

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Quotes 

• Major Gruver : [at a traditional tea ceremony: watching, as a Japanese man spends a lot of time carefully making a cup of tea]  He makes such a production of everything.

  Hana-ogi : The pleasure does not lie in the end itself... it's the pleasurable steps *to* that end.

• Hana-ogi : I'm so frightened and confused. I cannot think. I cannot even understand your thinking.

• Hana-ogi : [watching a traditional Japanese puppet performance about two doomed lovers]  It is custom for lovers to die together when they can no longer face life.

  Katsumi : [dreamily]  It is so beautiful.

  Joe Kelly : "Beautiful"? They're gonna' die, aren't they?

  Katsumi : [dreamily]  They will live in another world, on a beautiful lake, floating always together - like water lily.

  Joe Kelly : Sure.

• Hana-ogi : [pointing to some large rocks right off the seashore]  You see the rope between the rocks?

  Major Gruver : Yeah?

  Hana-ogi : That is a Shinto sign, showing they are married.

  Major Gruver : [slightly confused]  What, the rocks?

  Hana-ogi : Yes... they've been together so long, our people thought it was time they should get married. They look well together, don't you think?

  Major Gruver : Yeah, they make a handsome little couple!

• Hana-ogi : l realized the hate was of my own making. That is why l came to ask you to forgive me for what l have been feeling. Gruver-san, will you forgive me?

  Major Gruver : Well, you make me feel like an awful fool, Miss Ogi. l really feel that l ought to - ask you to forgive me for some of the things that - l've been thinking.

• Hana-ogi : My life is planned. l am dedicated to Matsubayashi, as you are dedicated to American military life. l have never been in love. But l have dreamed - and thought about it - and waited. The danger that lies ahead of us - we must face now. The danger of discovery, for both of us. Danger of weakness - when it is over. l will never fall in love again. But l will love you, Ace-san, if that is your desire.

• Major Gruver : l'm not up too good on Japanese ways of doing things and maybe l'm saying the wrong thing. l mean, maybe my American manners are embarrassing. But l figure, if you've come over here tonight maybe you were interested a little bit in meeting me, too. Now, maybe l'm wrong, but if l'm wrong, then you've got to tell me. Where do we go from here? Because l don't know what to say. l'm running out of things to say.

  Hana-ogi : My father was killed - by American bomb dropped on my country. You have been my enemy. l have hated Americans. l have thought they are savages. There's been nothing but vengeance in my heart.

  Major Gruver : Miss Ogi, there were an awful lot of Americans that were killed, too. And l think it would be best if we forgot about that.

• Hana-ogi : Are you going back to the officer's quarters tonight?

  Major Gruver : No, l think l'm going to just fool around here.

  Hana-ogi : What will you do all evening?

  Major Gruver : What am l going to do? l'm going to get some beer and some pretzels and bring girls up here. I'm going to have a little fun, for a change.

  Hana-ogi : Good. l don't like you to be lonely.

• Hana-ogi : [singing]  Sayonara, Japanese goodbye, Whisper sayonara, Lover, don't you cry, No more we stop to see pretty cherry blossom, No more we 'neath the tree looking at the sky, Sayonara, Sayonara...

• Hana-ogi : What have l done to deserve such happiness? l have seen this night of Tanabata come and go many times - but never before have l understood what it meant. Tanabata. Oh, my heart is so full of love for you.

• Hana-ogi : l am tempted. With you, l could become a woman. And a mother. And l could love you.

• Hana-ogi : l cannot think. l cannot even understand your thinking.

  Major Gruver : I'm not thinking! I'm not thinking. For the first time in my life, I'm not thinking and I don't care.

• Major Gruver : l don't want you to tell me anything more or anything less than you feel in the very deepest part of you; because what you answer to me now is going to affect us for the rest of our lives. Do you love me, Hana-ogi, or don't you love me?

  Hana-ogi : l'm so frightened and confused.

• Hana-ogi : Please, Lloyd, can't we talk about this later?

  Major Gruver : There isn't going to be any later. There's only going to be right now.

• Hana-ogi : But, Lloyd, we must do the right thing.

  Major Gruver : What are you talking about, the right thing? We've been wasting two good lives trying to do the right thing - the right thing for Matsubayashi, the right thing for my father, the right thing for the military, the right thing for Japanese tradition, the right thing for the great white race.

  Hana-ogi : But we have duties and obligations.

  Major Gruver : That's right, we do! We do have duties and obligations - and the first obligation we have is to love each other.

• Hana-ogi : What would happen to our children? What would they be?

  Major Gruver : What would they be? They'd be half Japanese, half American. They'd be half yellow and half white. They'd be half you, they'd be half me. That's all they're going to be.