Flower Drum Song

Flower Drum Song is a charming musical. It is not necessarily the most widely known or frequently talked about of the Rodgers and Hammerstein film adaptations, but it provides just as much heart and joy as any of the other films based on their work.

The movie is a love story centered around the issues of immigrant families, with a concentration on the specifics of the Chinese community in mid-century San Francisco. The most obvious and forward-facing of these is the contrast between first generation immigrants and their offspring in regards to love, but also on issues such as tradition, generational respect, and the value of money.

The result is something vaguely reminiscent of a classic Gilbert and Sullivan light opera, with a mixed up love quadrangle where the people engaged don’t really love each other and the people who love each other can’t see it yet and all this misunderstanding is driven by pre-arranged engagements, false identities, jealous scheming, and putting perhaps too much stock in tradition. Nothing about this is particularly revolutionary but man is it fun.

The music is good too. Not in the catchy, earworm way that more famous Rodgers and Hammerstein shows are, which might explain why Flower Drum Song is less talked about, but still quite good. In particular, I like “I Enjoy Being a Girl,” “The Other Generation,” Grant Avenue,” “Sunday,” and “Don’t Marry Me.” Not only are these all great fun to listen to, if a bit dated in some of their sensibilities, but many of them are staged extremely well, using the visual language of film to elevate the musical numbers beyond what could be accomplished with a stage production. “Sunday” and its fantasy of married life is a noticeable stand out here.

Another number I really like is “Love, Look Away,” which has one of the few dream ballets I don’t dislike. Here, the dance is in direct service to the plot, representing the repressed romantic feelings of an unrequited lover. The music and choreography all work to express that inner emotional truth. Other dream ballets are either tacked on talent showcases, like in The Band Wagon, or nothing more than a rehashing of the story we just got finished watching, like in An American in Paris. Unfortunately, despite how integrated “Love, Look Away” feels and how excellent the dance work is, it is in service of a character and side story that ends up underdeveloped.

This is the one major brick I would throw at Flower Drum Song, from a pure entertainment point of view: Helen Chao is given short shrift by the script. Helen is the only character who doesn’t get a happy ending. She starts as more of a side character, but once she comes into her own as a hopeless romantic with eyes for the wrong guy, including her own song and dance number, it becomes much harder to accept that she gets such a raw deal. Why get the audience to invest in the sad emotional state of this woman through nineteen minutes of her heartbreak, only to then pretend she doesn’t exist for the rest of the movie? This is especially weird since it sours some of the romantic joy of one of the major couples since we, the audience, are made aware of how unhappy it is making a likeable third party. It didn’t have to be this way, either, as there is ample time to give her something new once she symbolically lets go of her infatuation during the dream ballet. And yet, the movie leaves this as a strange dangling piece of story.

Flower Drum Song is a fun, lighthearted, slightly silly movie that is just an enjoyable watch all around. It’s got good music, funny jokes, sweet sentimentality, strong performances (in acting, singing, and dance), and it puts some interesting cultural twists on a familiar love story. It might not be the most famous Rodgers and Hammerstein collaboration, but I suspect if you like musicals you’ll find a lot to like about this movie.

Would Recommend: If you’re in the mood for a lighthearted musical.

Would Not Recommend: If you don’t particularly care for Rodgers and Hammerstein shows.