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House of Bamboo [70th anniversary] (PG)

Planted in a Tokyo crime syndicate, a US Army Investigator attempts to probe the coinciding death of a fellow Army official. 

In Samuel Fuller’s CinemaScope film noir House of Bamboo (1955), celebrating its 70th anniversary in 2025, US paternal superiority is cast over Japan’s feminised subordination. Sessue Hayakawa’s modest appearance as Inspector Kita—a mere shadow of the sex symbol he once was—metaphorically indicates the loss of masculine agency. The interracial romance between Eddie (Robert Stack) and his kimono girl Mariko (Shirley Yamaguchi) instigates conflicts over gender, power, and national identity. Yet the film eschews superficial typecasting by depicting Mariko as culturally resilient, and Chinese-born Japanese star Yamaguchi’s transnational identities complicate simplistic interpretations of her character. 

Transnational Japan in Hollywood—This season explores representations of Japan as Other by revisiting a collection of Hollywood films that depict Japaneseness through external lenses. Japan’s transitional images observed in the selected films not only reveal Hollywood’s construction and reconstruction of Japaneseness through pivotal historical moments but also serve as a mirror, signalling America’s self-reflection, anxieties, and affirmation of its evolving position in the world. 

Purchase tickets for multiple films in the Transnational Japan in Hollywood season to receive a discount on your tickets.

  • Director: Samuel Fuller
  • Cast: Robert Stack, Robert Ryan, Yoshiko Yamaguchi
  • Language: English