Come See the Paradise

R

1990

2h 14m

Drama

List

64%

11 Reviews

Tomatometer

73%

250+ Ratings

Audience Score

In this drama from director Alan Parker, on-the-lam Jack McGurn (Dennis Quaid) flees to Los Angeles and takes a job as a projectionist at a movie theater owned by a Japanese-American man (Sab Shimono). Jack falls for the owner's daughter, Lily (Tamlyn Tomita), but they are forced to elope to Seattle when her father forbids the relationship. The couple marry and have a daughter, but when World War II breaks out, Jack is powerless to stop his new family's forced internment.

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Steve D

The focus might be in the wrong place but it sure is powerful.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/24/23

Full Review

andy h

Some call it Oscar bait, but I think it really deserves gold for being a romantic epic set during a controversial period for Japanese Americans.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

jon c

Directed by Alan Parker. Dennis Quaid and Tamlyn Tomita star in a historical drama. Beginning in the 1930s Jack is a projectionist at a movie theater in Los Angeles. It's actually owned by a Japanese man and he falls in love with his daughter Lily. Her father disapproves so they both elope. Soon after they have a daughter together. Jack also has strong reservations for the working class; all the rage and frustration against the men in corporate suits makes him feel that things need to change. This proves difficult for his wife when he's jailed after a workers protest. After the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1945 tensions start to increase. A lot of Americans develop hatred and hostility towards many of the Japanese. So many of them are American citizens but are rounded up and thrown in internment camps. The living conditions were harsh from no privacy to crammed spaces. Jack sadly is separated from his family and drafted into the army to trained to kill the enemy. This shows how the general population reacts to times of war and desperation. Because of someone else's ethnicity the hate grows uncontrollably. Everyone expects to hate others because of others' actions. Too many of these camps aren't jails they're like human cages. For lots of Japanese at the time they weren't allowed to own businesses or become citizens on their own. With these camps it changed their lives dramatically. People would only believe the worst during these dark times. Does anyone change inside? Is it better to die than give up on life? Quaid and Tomita are brilliant together showing true love can beat war and hatred. Beautiful music and ripe emotions ring true. The movie also acts as a good fable reminding us of how easily we can give up our freedoms and liberties, and how much we need them. You can only lose so much you love and so much hope that there's nothing left. A new paradise always awaits us after the darkest of days. Good stuff.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Never knew about this going on before I was born. Only knew about the Nazi's and Pearl Harbor pretty much. Amazing story and very informational

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/09/23

Full Review

Audience Member

As excellent a movie as this could have been, shining a light on a dark period in the history of America, it wasn't. It was an awkwardly paced, Oscar-baiting, disappointment of a film that used a love story to convey a message that I still have trouble establishing. No wonder this movie was regarded as the most intense example of Oscar bait.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

02/23/23

Full Review

Audience Member

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.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/05/23

Full Review

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Alan Parker

Director

Dennis Quaid

Jack McGurn

Tamlyn Tomita

Lily Yuriko Kawamura

Sab Shimono

Hiroshi Kawamura

Shizuko Hoshi

Mrs. Kawamura

Stan Egi

Charlie Kawamura

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Owen Gleiberman

Entertainment Weekly

Rated: D+

Sep 7, 2011

Full Review

David Ansen

Newsweek

Though Parker's heart, and his facts, are in the right place, he's succeeded in reducing a powerful story of institutional racism into an unforgivably dull film.

Mar 31, 2008

Full Review

Roger Ebert

Chicago Sun-Times

Come See the Paradise is a fable to remind us of how easily we can surrender our liberties, and how much we need them.

Rated: 3/4

Jan 1, 2000

Full Review

Chuck O'Leary

FulvueDrive-in.com

Rated: 3/5

May 7, 2007

Full Review

Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com

Rated: C+

Jul 14, 2005

Full Review

Carol Cling

Las Vegas Review-Journal

Rated: 3/5

Jul 2, 2004

Full Review

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Synopsis

In this drama from director Alan Parker, on-the-lam Jack McGurn (Dennis Quaid) flees to Los Angeles and takes a job as a projectionist at a movie theater owned by a Japanese-American man (Sab Shimono). Jack falls for the owner's daughter, Lily (Tamlyn Tomita), but they are forced to elope to Seattle when her father forbids the relationship. The couple marry and have a daughter, but when World War II breaks out, Jack is powerless to stop his new family's forced internment.

Director: Alan Parker
Production Co: Twentieth Century Fox
Rating: R
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Jul 1, 2011
Box Office (Gross USA): $850.6K
Runtime: 2h 14m
Sound Mix: Surround

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