Come See the Paradise

Audience Reviews

View All (37) audience reviews

Steve D The focus might be in the wrong place but it sure is powerful. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  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 4/5 Stars •  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 4.5/5 Stars •  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 5/5 Stars •  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 0.5/5 Stars •  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 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/05/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Come See the Paradise

My Rating

Read More Read Less POST RATING WRITE A REVIEW EDIT REVIEW

Most Popular at Home Now