The Mikado

The Mikado is a 1967 British musical film adaptation of Gilbert and Sullivan's 1885 comic opera of the same name. The film was directed by Stuart Burge and was a slightly edited adaptation of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company's production of The Mikado and used all D'Oyly Carte singers. Plot In Japan, Nanki-Poo, a young and apparently poor "wand'ring minstrel", arrives at the seaside town of Titipu in search of a schoolgirl named Yum-Yum, to profess his love for her after hearing that her ward, a cheap tailor named Ko-Ko, was to be executed for an act of flirting. The aristocratic mayor of Titipu, Pooh-Bah, and his deputy, Pish-Tush, tell Nanki-Poo that the charges against Ko-Ko were dropped at the last moment, as he was made "Lord High Executioner" to protect others in town accused of the same crime. Yum-Yum and her sisters, Pitti-Sing and Peep-Bo, return home from school. Nanki-Poo wants to meet Yum-Yum in person, but Ko-Ko sends him away. Pooh-Bah does not find Yum-Yum and her classmates respectful enough. Later, Nanki-Poo, reveals to Yum-Yum that he is the son of the Mikado, the Emperor of Japan, and also that the Mikado has ordered Nanki-Poo to marry an elderly court lady named Katisha, or "perish ignominiously on the scaffold", and so he fled his home disguised as a minstrel. Nanki-Poo and Yum-Yum lament that capital punishment is the penalty for flirting. Ko-Ko receives a letter from the Mikado containing a decree that unless an execution is carried out in Titipu within a month, the town will be reduced to the rank of a village, which would bring "irretrievable ruin". After a discussion with Pooh-Bah and Pish-Tush, Ko-Ko finds Nanki-Poo planning to commit suicide by hanging himself due to losing Yum-Yum. Ko-Ko persuades him, instead, to be executed for the good of the town and agrees that during the ensuing month, Nanki-Poo may marry Yum-Yum. Before the wedding, a furious Katisha storms into Titipu to expose Nanki-Poo's true identity. Pitti-Sing, Yum-Yum and the townspeople thwart Katisha, who leaves vowing to return with the Mikado.