Snow Falling on Cedars (Widescreen)

Set in the fishing village of San Piedro, somewhere in the Pacific Northwest, the film shuttles back and forth between the present, in the 1950's, and the past, in the late 30's to 40's. The film shows Ishmael falling in love with Hatsue Imada, a Japanese girl, and both their mothers disapproving of interracial relationships. The overall overcast setting lends to the forboding, oppressive atmosphere, but it works well in the forest, where Hatsue has a little hidey hole in the depths of a large cedar tree, a clandestine meeting place for the young lovers. However, the dizzying array of echoed and repeated voices, and montages connecting various bits of the past can be rather trying.

Of course, the attack on Pearl Harbor stirs up anti-Japanese sentiments, setting the stage for what has been called the largest wholesale violation of civil rights in US history: the rounding up of Japanese-Americans from their homes, confiscation of anything traditional, called "old country", and mass deportation to camps like Manzanar, which is the camp the Miyamotos end up in.

However, Ishmael's father, Arthur, the editor of the local paper, is very progressive, and protests the roundups, which leads to threatening calls and cancellations of subscriptions. At the time of the trial, his father has died, and he discovers to his discomfort that his father's liberal reputation is overshadowing him.

The Japanese traditions of girls being groomed to be graceful, e.g. sitting on one's knees without moving, the wearing of kimonos, etc. is something my late mother could relate to, as she too was Japanese. Hatsue's mother is one forbidding her relationship to Ishmael. Similarly, my mother's father, had he lived, would never have allowed her to marry my father, otherwise your humble reviewer's race would have been different.

While Ethan Hawke does well as the brooding Ishmael, he's overshadowed by other performers, such as von Sydow, Youki Koudoh (Hatsue), and Sam Shepard (Arthur Chambers). As the film progresses, one begins to understand his bitterness.

I haven't read Guterson's novel, so I don't know how closely the movie follows it. Regardless, it's a slow-paced movie, but not grabbing at times; somehow, the mixture of adolescent romance, and racial courtroom drama that lacks punch. But the message of learning to let go of the past, and the conditions that would allow one to let go, comes through towards the end.

The title tells it all. The plot is already summed up quite tidily in other reviews. I would just add a few remarks.

English is not Kudoh Yuki's native language. In this movie she does one better than Meryl Streep by actually demonstrating mastery of an entire foreign language by speaking American English with an American accent. Of course, she was already good at it, but we have to remember that Hatsue, being born and bred on American shores, was a native speaker. I thought Kudoh was very convincing. Yes, acting is not all about utterances, and her facial expressions may have been formulaic to some point, but this movie is worth watching just for seeing Ms. Kudoh do her stuff.

And the movie had a profound message. Because of that and the fact that the story took place in a part of the world I was born in, I found the two hours generally satisfying.

Here and there I found the behavior of the characters mystifying - especially crowd behavior.

Why, for example, the silent march to the ferry dock? Forced evacuation of citizens based solely on race was truly a glaring violation of the Bill of Rights, but it was not mass genocide. The long walk scene was as drawn-out as it was grim. It featured a nagging bass in the soundtrack and dejected victims stunned to silence. Together they portrayed a stark black-and-white simplicity that I would question. I imagine that at least the children would still be children and think they were all taking part in some community outing. While the scene captured a certain psychological truth, it also was a bit too heavy-handed. We of the here-and-now know far too much and they knew way too little.

But the movie is definitely worth the time and money.

What I'd like to know, though, is why did they bother to shoot this in color?