Review of Come See the Paradise (1990) by Teresa S — 03 Aug 2010

(1990 Director: Alan Parker) Seems there were a few movies made about hush hush accounts of the internment of Japanese living in America in response to WW II! This film is one; another is Snow Falling on Cedars, though in a less underplayed way. As I tell my son this is NOT a war movie yet in the stories of the peoples lives in this film they are IMPACTED by the war.

Just watching this movie (Netflix rental) tonight. I have awaited its arrival & been looking forward to it! Wished to see it both for the actors & its themes & wondering how it was handled--released in 1990 (filmed at the end of the '80's "Me" generation] Both sides of this cd-rom have film--the main movie on one side; the flip side has directorial comments, video images & much more.

This is a very sensitive handling of the racial & nationalism issues of the 1940's just pre-bomibing of Pearl Harbor set when this very unlikely pair met. Irish Projectionists' Labor Union attorney Jack McGunn (Dennis McQuaid) well versed in the Wagner Labor Relations Act. Jack is ousted because he disapproves of the dirty politics and is forced to move to Los Angeles to stay with his brother (Colm Meaney-Star Trek) and meets through his modest job as projectionist for a private theatre in Little Toyko the beautiful Lily Wakamura (Tamlyn Tomita) seamstress & daughter of a modest Japanese family living in Little Tokyo (Los Angeles).