Unfamiliar `Hot Summer Winds' Blows Warm And Freely

A critical act at the heart of "Hot Summer Winds," the one-hour drama on PBS' "American Playhouse" at 10 p.m. tomorrow on KCTS-TV, is the writing of haiku, traditional Japanese poems, poems that are as spare, elegant and memorable as this film.

"Hot Summer Winds" is based on two short stories by Hisaye Yamamoto about a Japanese-American farm family living in rural California in the late 1930s. The husband, played by Sab Shimono, grows increasingly aware that his wife, played by Natsuko Ohama, is better-educated than he and he reacts badly to her attempts at writing poetry, at trying to create moments of beauty in their hard life. The plot is further complicated by the arrival of a farm hand, played by Pepe Serna, who is fascinated by the wife's quiet beauty and to whom the wife turns for solace.

Certainly it's a familiar plot but what Yamamoto and filmmaker Emiko Omori have done with it makes it a haunting experience. The dialogue, like haiku, suggests more than it says, and the acting is as restrained, simple and beautiful as classical Japanese painting.

"Hot Summer Winds," sans stars and with an unfamiliar setting, may not sound appealing - but give it a chance and it will work its magic on you.

Tribute: For home viewers, the fun of the American Film Institute's annual tribute is a chance to see lots of film clips featuring the honoree, even though CBS thinks what we want to see are quick shots of lots of celebrities tying on the feed bag.

Thus, the "A.F.I. Salute to Kirk Douglas," at 10 tonight on KIRO-TV, is true to form. The opening segment features a wide variety of clips from the 79 movies Douglas has made and that's great fun. Unfortunately, the tributes from some of the guests are less stimulating, partly because many of them seem to have been chosen only because they're TV performers, i.e. Danny De Vito, Dana Carvey, Angie Dickinson, and not because they appeared in any of Douglas' greatest films . .

Ah, but when we're treated to clips from such Douglas classics as "Champion," "Detective Story," "Ace in the Hole" and especially "The Bad and the Beautiful," then it becomes clear why Douglas is being saluted. He's a star in the best Hollywood tradition - a big man for the big screen.

Spaced out: "Plymouth," the new TV movie ABC airs at 9 p.m. Sunday on KOMO-TV, is touted as a "science-fact" portrayal of a colony on the moon. (It's named Plymouth because the film intimates that a town named Plymouth in Oregon was dangerously near a Cheronobyl-like nuclear accident, resulting in the entire town being picked up and resettled on the moon - which may be a bit of over-reaction.

Anyway, there's a lot of scientific gadgetry on view in "Plymouth," which stars Cindy Pickett and Dale Midkiff, but while the mechanical aspects of the story are wonderfully up to date, with lots of "Star Trek"-type photography, the plot, characters and acting are depressingly old-fashioned. Plymouth, located on the moon, is just as gossipy and dreadful as it must have been in Oregon.

The fuss concerns Pickett, a widow with four sitcom children, who falls for Midkiff, a "rocket jockey," and becomes pregnant. Once this is discovered, the entire cast fusses over whether Pickett should return to Earth to give birth to the child, something which seems to be impossible on the moon. There's the fault of the story: If modern science can find a way to re-create cottages and picket fences on the moon, then surely having a baby the old-fashioned way should be a breeze. But then, of course, there wouldn't have been this movie - and that would have been a good thing.

Video notes: After pulling it from the air, ABC has decided to air two episodes of "My Life and Times" tonight at 9 and 9:30 on KOMO-TV. . . . The concluding half of the interview with Norman Lear airs on NBC's "Later with Bob Costas" at 1:30 a.m. tomorrow on KING-TV. . . . HBO shows another episode of the comedy series, "Night Rap," at midnight Friday. . . Damon Wayans of "In Living Color" gets his own HBO special, which has both its funny moments and dull ones, premiering at 10 p.m. Saturday on cable. . . . Frederick Bernthal, acting director of the National Science Foundation, is the scheduled guest for "Upon Reflection" at 12:30 p.m. Sunday on KCTS-TV. . . . In the midst of all the flag-waving, the best, most thoughtful and affecting Memorial Day programming is being done by KTPS-TV (Channel 28) which will air all of the episodes of Ken Burns' "The Civil War," beginning at 8 a.m. Monday. . . .

John Voorhees' column appears Sunday, Monday and Thursday in The Times.