Movie Review - Snow Falling on Cedars (1999)

Snow Falling on Cedars is a movie that means so much to me, yet had absolutely nothing to do with my current situation when it was released. For one, I wasn't in a forbidden relationship and there was no open war fought on two fronts. But I can sympathize with the characters in the movie, given the theme of love in a world that will not have it, despite the gains made in society to facilitate it.

Based on the 1994 book of the same name, the movie is set in two time periods: around the middle of the Second World War and a period ten years later. Our two main characters are Ishmael (Ethan Hawke) and Hatsue (Yoki Kudo), two kids growing up in a small West Coast fishing town. They would grow up to be lovers, but they could never be together because Hatsue is Japanese-American and Ishmael is White. In their teens, World War II comes to America's doorstep. All Japanese-Americans had to report to internment camps due to their being a "homeland security risk" in the war against Japan. While Hatsue is placed in an internment camp, Ishmael joins the fight and finds himself in the Pacific Theater. It is this period where the young lovers are changed.
Hatsue meets her future husband Kazuo Miyamoto (Rick Yune), a man in her internment camp who is shipped out to the European Theater and returns. Ishmael loses his arm--and his love for Hatsue--at Iwo Jima. Yet something inside Ishmael still burns...

Fast forward to postwar America: people are still against Japanese-Americans. Sometimes out in the open and sometimes behind closed doors. It all comes to a head when the small fishing town where Ishmael grew up has a murder mystery. It seems a young fisherman was murdered. The only suspect is the last man to have a dispute with the young man's family: his friend Kazuo Miyamoto. The racism in town has got Hatsue and Kazuo's father Zenhichi (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa) worried that his son won't get a fair trial, even with the help of Nels Gudmunssen the defense lawyer (legendary actor Max von Sydow). Ishmael, now a newspaper reporter, has evidence that could clear Kazuo's name, but will the jilted love of Hatsue stop him from doing the right thing?

The idea that there's this love story with history being used as a backdrop for a murder mystery is absolutely brilliant. I can't think as to why I went to see this movie... Wait! I think I know why: back then I had CRAZY yellow fever.
I was all about the Asian hotties. Hell, I used to rationalize that I admired the minimalistic beauty of the Asian woman as a man AND as a graphic designer. I used to say, in reference to the Asian woman, that God did so much to create a beautiful woman by doing very little. In many ways, I still feel the same but definitely not as strongly as I did during the time I saw this movie. When this movie ended, I cried quiet tears. I cried for the happiness and sadness of the characters. Most of all, I cried in recognition of Ishmael's silent battle fought to quell the feelings in his heart for Hatsue and to uphold a pillar of the newsman's existence: the truth.

Here be an excellent movie.

CHOICE CUTS:

• The power goes out in the courthouse during the snowstorm and big candles are brought in to shed light on the proceedings. I don't know what was used to make the film do what it did in those scenes, but it made you pay attention.
• Wait, Tagawa-san's NOT playing a heavy? It's a brave new direction for him...
• James Cromwell, representin' for all good actors.
• The whole movie was better than all expectations.

PRICELESS QUOTES:
Ismael is not shown speaking throughout most of his war flashback. The only time he speaks is when the doctors are removing his destroyed arm, symbolic of his loss of love for Hatsue in light of the situation:

"Fucking Jap bitch."

Horace Whaley (played by Max Wright) makes a comment on the stand about the Japanese culture:

"They teach their kids to kill! With sticks!"

Hatsue's mom Fujiko (Japanese actress Ako) gives her daughter helpful advice while brushing her hair:

"Remember: stay away from white boys!"

The prosecuting attorney (played by James Rebhorn) is a real bastard and questions Kazuo (Rick Yune) about a misunderstanding in testimony. He uses it to his advantage to influence the jury, saying:

"But how can we trust you now? Question withdrawn."

There was no way Snow Falling on Cedars was going to get anything less than a 10; it's an accurate show of how the world works against those who want nothing more than to be happy. Dammit, I'm tearing up again; I promised myself I wouldn't cry...

RATING: 10/10