Imagine it’s 1939.  The world stands at the precipice of war.  So why not make a film adaptation of a classic English comic opera set in Imperial Japan, but all of the character and place names are silly baby-talk?  And this reliance of nonsense serves as a stand-in for “foreign” which is contrasted against a view of Japanese culture as arbitrarily cruel and hidebound to antiquated and contradictory social propriety?  Except it’s not really about Japan, it’s actually just using tactless cultural appropriation as a means to disguise biting social commentary actually directed at England?  Is the result straight-up exploitation or the last gasp of cultural chauvinism before the British Empire fell to pieces?  You’ll have to join us and listen to find out the definitive answer to all of these questions and more as we discuss Victor Shertinger’s The Mikado.

If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be reviewing and discussing Mike Leigh's Topsy-Turvy (1999).