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.

[citation needed] 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 War II.

[6] Lean had completed a script in collaboration with Mason and cast Keiko Kishi as the girl, but disagreed with Alexander Korda, who was to have produced the film and the project fell through.

[9][10] Ralph Thomas later said he thought Sir John Davis of Rank "very bravely" authorised location-filming in India "because he trusted David Lean's judgement that it was a splendid book.

[14] The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "This adaptation of Richard Mason's novel is what the trade describes as a 'woman's picture', in this case complete with exotic music and a cloying theme song.

Visually, the film benefits from its Indian locations: crowded bazaars, city streets and picturesque views of the Taj Mahal provide genuine, if predictable, local colour.