Picture Bride (film)

Picture Bride
Theatrical poster
Directed byKayo Hatta
Written by
  • Kayo Hatta
  • Mari Hatta
Produced byDiane Mark
Lisa Onodera
Starring
CinematographyClaudio Rocha
Edited byLynzee Klingman
Music byMark Adler
Distributed byMiramax Films
Release dates
  • January 1995 (1995-01) (Sundance)
  • May 5, 1995 (1995-05-05) (United States)
Running time
95 minutes
CountryUnited States
Languages
  • English
  • Japanese
Budget$2 million[1]
Box office$1,238,905[2]

Picture Bride is a 1995 American Japanese-language feature-length independent film directed by Kayo Hatta from a screenplay co-written with Mari Hatta, and co-produced by Diane Mei Lin Mark and Lisa Onodera. It follows Riyo, who arrives in Hawaii as a "picture bride" at the turn of the century for a man she has never met before. The story is based on the historical practice, due to U.S. anti-miscegenation laws, of Japanese immigrant laborers in the United States using long-distance matchmakers in their homelands to find wives.

Released by Miramax Films, the film stars Youki Kudoh, Akira Takayama, Tamlyn Tomita, and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, with a special appearance by Toshiro Mifune in his penultimate film role. Picture Bride premiered at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award for narrative dramatic feature film.[3][4] Considered a landmark Asian American work, the film was an Official Selection at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section[5] and received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best First Feature.[6]

  1. ^ Dare, Sheryl (April 23, 1995). "FILM; A Passage to Hawaii: The Picture Brides' Tale". The New York Times. Retrieved August 7, 2022.
  2. ^ "Picture Bride (1995)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved August 18, 2017.
  3. ^ "Picture Bride". www.sundance.org. Archived from the original on October 5, 2013. Retrieved May 26, 2022.
  4. ^ Chapin, Laura (May 2, 1995). "Picture Bride' pays off". United Press International. Archived from the original on August 7, 2022. Retrieved May 26, 2022.
  5. ^ "Festival de Cannes: Picture Bride". festival-cannes.com. Archived from the original on January 23, 2013. Retrieved August 31, 2009.
  6. ^ Liu, Nathan (November 4, 2021). "Kayo Hatta's 'Picture Bride,' a forgotten film ahead of its time – Asian CineVision". Asian Cinevision. Retrieved May 26, 2022.