The Crimson Kimono

The Crimson Kimono is a 1959 film noir directed by Samuel Fuller. The film stars James Shigeta, Glenn Corbett and Victoria Shaw.[1] It featured several ahead-of-its-time ideas about race and society's perception of race, a thematic and stylistic trademark of Fuller.

The film is about two cops, friends and Korean War veterans, Detective Joe Kojaku (James Shigeta) and Detective Sgt. Charlie Bancroft (Glenn Corbett), who attempt to solve the murder of a local entertainer. A love triangle soon develops between the two detectives and a key witness, Christine Downes (Victoria Shaw).

In the film, the interracial relationships are compared to paintings using two different kinds of colors, a trope.[2]

Philip W. Chung of Asian Week wrote that the white woman choosing an Asian man as a romantic partner is "What was most revolutionary about the film in 1959 Hollywood", something that was, in 2007, "sadly, still revolutionary today."[3]