The Wind Cannot Read

The Wind Cannot Read
Original British quad poster
Directed by	Ralph Thomas
Produced by	Betty E. Box Earl St. John
Written by	Richard Mason (novel)
Starring	Dirk Bogarde Yoko Tani Ronald Lewis John Fraser
Music by	Angelo Francesco Lavagnino
Cinematography	Ernest Steward
Edited by	Frederick Wilson
Release date	1958
Running time	115 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

The Wind Cannot Read is a 1958 British drama film directed by Ralph Thomas and starring Dirk Bogarde, Yoko Tani, Ronald Lewis and John Fraser. It was based on a novel by Richard Mason.

Songwriter, Peter Hart received the 1958 Ivor Novello award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically for the title song, performed by Vera Lynn.

The film takes place in Burma and India during World War II.

A British officer falls in love with his Japanese instructor at a military language school. They start a romance, but she is regarded as the enemy and is not accepted by his countrymen. Later he is captured by the Japanese army when he is patrolling with a brigadier and an Indian driver in a Japanese-controlled zone. He escapes and returns to his own lines, only to discover that his fiancée is suffering from a brain tumor and dies.

In 1955 David Lean agreed to film Richard Mason's novel The Wind Cannot Read, the story of a romance between a British officer and a self-exiled Japanese woman in India circa 1943, during World World II.

Originally Lean considered making the lead character a Canadian and offered the part to Glenn Ford. Lean also offered the role to Kenneth More, who was unsure about whether the public would accept him in the part and turned it down. It was a decision More later regarded as "the greatest mistake I ever made professionally". Lean had completed a script in collaboration with Mason and cast Kishi Keiko as the girl, but disagreed with Alexander Korda, who was to have produced the film and the project fell through.

Lean had already entered into discussions with Sam Spiegel, regarding a film version of Pierre Boulle's novel The Bridge on the River Kwai. After Korda's death in 1956 the rights to Mason's novel were sold to Rank Film Productions, who assigned the project to the team of Betty Box and Ralph Thomas.