Movielogr
Song of the White Orchid (1939)
Directed by Kunio Watanabe
Overview
Song of the White Orchid was a co-production of Toho and Mantetsu, the railway that served the colonial region of Manchuria, and the first film in the Kazuo Hasegawa/Shirley Yamaguchi (Ri Koran) “Continental Trilogy.” Handsome Hasegawa (representing Japan) runs up against an impertinent Yamaguchi (representing the continent); not surprisingly, in the course of the film the woman comes around and realizes the benevolent intentions of the Japanese. In Song of the White Orchid Yamaguchi leaves Hasegawa, who plays an expatriate working for the railway, because of a misunderstanding. She joins a communist guerilla group plotting to blow up the Manchurian railway. Learning of the subterfuge that led to the misunderstanding, she renews her faith in Hasegawa—and by extension Japan—and tries to undermine the plot.
Length 102 minutes
Actors
Shirley Yamaguchi | Kazuo Hasegawa | Noboru Kiritachi | Hisako Yamane | Sadao Maruyama | Yoshio Kosugi | Etchan | Isamu Eto | Susumu Fujita | Kinji Fujiwa | Fumio Hara | Yoshiko Katô | Nijiko Kiyokawa | Yôyô Kojima | Hiroaki Kurahashi | Kokuten Kôdô | Ko Mihashi | Hideo Nakamura | Kenho Nakamura | Hideo Saito | Keiji Sakakida | Rikie Sanjô | Eitarô Shindô | Sanpei Tani | Katsumi Tezuka | Ken'ichirô Ubukata | Unpei Yokoyama