Review of Come See the Paradise (1990) by Alan G — 27 Apr 2014

Written and directed by Alan Parker, who had just come of Mississippi Burning (1988), which showed a dark chapter in American history, Parker shows another dark chapter of America in the 20th Century, but this is one that a lot of people don't know about, and it's unbelievable that the U.

S. Government approved something like this, but it makes for a good romantic drama. In 1936, cinema projectionist Jack McGurn (Dennis Quaid) moves to Los Angeles from New York, after being involved in union activities.

Looking to lie low, he takes a job as a projectionist in a cinema ran by a Japanese-American family, led by Hiroshi Kawamura (Sab Shimono). Jack falls for Kawamura's daughter Lily (Tamlyn Tomita), and they marry, and have a daughter Mini (Elizabeth Gilliam).

However, when war breaks, Jack ends up joining the army and Lily and her family are caught up in a much worse fate, when they're sent to a Japanese American internment in remote California, set up by Congress after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

You can't believe something like this actually happened on American soil, but it did, and the history books usually fail to mention that this happened. Parker's film should have brought this matter to public attention again, but the film sadly sank without trace, which is a shame, as people should learn what America did to their own.