I think this film does a decent job depicting the experiences of Japanese Americans during World War II. The movie spends a lot of time establishing a pre-war normalcy that is uprooted in the later parts of the movie. Lily Kawamura's (Tamlyn Tomita) family is well established and prominent among Japanese American elite circles. They are educated and well dressed and prove themselves to be just like any other American. Japanese Americans were just like any other Americans. Yet the contingencies of war took that all away from them. The movie in the beginning does capture a bit of the tensions between non-hyphenated Americans and the Japanese Americans, mainly through the interactions with Lily's father (Sab Shimono) and Jack McGurn (Dennis Quad). What the movie best achieves though is a depiction of life within the internment camps and the costs of upheaval for many Japanese Americans. Lily's family is forced to give away everything and depart from their home in San Francisco and partake in the forced internment. This tears Lily apart from her now husband Jack, which is certainly emotionally distressing but the whole love story between them is so painfully awkward and horrible to watch that it is hard to fully feel any emotions one way or the other. I think Alan Parker would have done a better job focusing a bit more on the internment experience rather than this irritating love story. With that, the internment experience showed the further trials that Japanese Americans had to face. They were asked to remain loyal to a country that took everything away from them. The film shows the internees struggling to reply to the infamous "Loyalty Question," question numbers 27 and 28 on a survey that all internees had to take. The question essentially asked them to either declare themselves to be fully committed American citizens, and potentially fight for their country or: "Will you swear unqualified allegiance to the United States of America and faithfully defend the United States from any and all attacks by foreign or domestic forces, and forswear any form of allegiance to the Japanese emperor, to any other foreign government power or organization?" These sort of questions had immense repercussions for those who answered no, as we saw in the movie when Lily's brother was sent to the Tule Lake internment camp with the rest of the "no-no boys." The tensions between the Nisei and Issei generations held a lot of sway in the film as well, another aspect that was well represented in terms of camp life. Overall the film depicted a complicated time in American history but lacked in the romance aspect of the film.

Come See the Paradise is a Hollywood dramatized historical film. It incorporates aspects of historical facts, but alters it greatly in order to make it more relatable to the average American. What does that mean in terms of the film? Well there must be a straight, white male lead because who can relate to Japanese Americans? This creates a noticeable flaw in the film as a whole. Dennis Quaid's character felt unnecessary, stereotypical, largely one-dimensional, and empowered by an overly noticeable sexual energy. Additionally, for a hefty film time of two hours and eighteen minutes, it felt as though only ~thirty of those minutes were spent inside the internment camp itself. It wasted so much time attempting to humanize these characters, and create backgrounds for them that it became confusing as to what type of movie we were watching. Although I appreciate the dedication for attempting to flesh out these characters more, most of this development could have been taken place within a camp setting. I did appreciate the depiction of portraying an interracial couple during a very racist time period. It was interesting to see how the Japanese family reacted to the situation, and seeing the expectation that Japanese women had in terms of their love life. It would be more important and realistic though to portray how society reacted to this couple. In 1940s California, people would not be accepting of a Japanese-American couple. This was a time where Japanese, or even other East Asian immigrants who appeared Japanese, were at times assaulted on the streets. The film touched on this with the racist Santa Claus, but this even had issues with it. Because of the film only depicted the racism through this one scene, it appears as though only a few Santas were racist, when in reality it would have been a majority of Santas! In reality, this couple would struggle to live their lives due to societal racism. They would be unable to eat at restaurants without complaint, see films, raise their daughter, etc. This was not depicted in the film. In fact, the film dedicated more time displaying how the Japanese family disapproved of the couple compared to society, that it made it seem that Japanese were more racist towards Americans, than Americans towards Japanese! This is an inaccurate depiction that severely hurt the films credibility.

The unconstitutional internment of Japanese-Americans during WW2 is one of those little-known tragedies of history. I had never heard of it until I chanced upon this movie. And although it's not as great a tragedy, I consider it to be another one that this movie is also so little-known.But this is not a documentary, and although you might learn something, this movie should be appreciated as a work of art. Of course if you're looking for a feel-good, popcorn flick, you should probably look elsewhere, but when you're in the mood for a serious, dramatic work, come back to this one and bring a box of tissues.The movie follows the lives of the Kawamura family. The parents relocated from Japan and settled into a thriving Japanese community in California known as Little Tokyo where their children were born. Their family, home, business, and friends are all there.Meanwhile in Boston, Irish-American Jack McGurn has been caught up in some illegal union activities. Disillusioned by his cohorts' lack of principles and fearing arrest, Jack flees the city to stay with his brother until he can sort out his life. He finds a temporary job working as the projectionist in the movie house run by Mr. Kawamura. Jack learns Japanese songs from the movies, befriends his employer's son, and falls hard for his employer's oldest daughter Lily, played by a luminescent Tamlyn Tomita. Jack's and Lily's love story is interwoven with the rest of her family's experiences in the internment camps. Jack, who found it hard to turn his back on the plight of the common working man even for the sake of peace in his family, is later forced to leave his wife and child to endure the camps while he is drafted into the army to fight against the countrymen of his in-laws, people he has come to love and respect.There is some violence in this movie, but it is neither incessant nor gratuitous. There is also some strong language and sexual content, but that too is neither incessant nor gratuitous. There are also some heart-wrenching moments, and some moments that will make you question what it means to belong to a country and to love a country as your own. I would recommend that parents and teachers screen this movie for themselves before showing it to any minors.But it is the love that holds the movie together. It is the love that makes the painful moments hurt so much, but that same love makes those moments endurable. Jack and the Kawamuras are flawed human beings making mistakes as they try to make their way through the world, but they are decent, caring people trying to do the right thing, and they love each other. It is easy to root for these people, to hurt with them when things go wrong, and to feel joy in their triumphs. The occasional moments of humor help lighten the mood.The costumes and production design are so well done it's easy to forget that this is a modern movie and that it wasn't filmed in the age it depicts. The script is top-shelf, and the entire cast is uniformly excellent. Dennis Quaid succeeds in making Jack simultaneously bullheaded but capable of great sensitivity, and he keeps his character human and relatable. Tamlyn Tomita gives an award-worthy performance of the calibre that even if she had never done anything else in film or television, she should be counted a success as an actress. It's all but impossible to avoid falling for her Lily right along with Jack. She might be better-dressed and look more glamorous in other works, but this must be the work she prefers to be known for.I highly recommend this movie to anyone capable of appreciating dramatic works, anyone with an interest in history, or anyone who enjoys watching a talented cast work together to produce one of those once-in-a-lifetime films. If I could only pack a shoebox's worth of movies to watch for the rest of my life, this would be one of them.Come See the Paradise. I think you'll be glad you did.

It's 1936. Jack McGurn (Dennis Quaid)'s wife had gone back to Ireland after losing their unborn child in an industrial accident. He is an union "sweatshop lawyer" who gets run out of Brooklyn after he disagreed with burning down a theater. He comes to join his brother Gerry in L.A. and eventually gets a job at a Japanese theater in Little Tokyo. He falls in love with the owner's daughter Lily Kawamura (Tamlyn Tomita). Her father forbids her and she runs away to get married in Seattle. It was illegal in California at the time. He gets into trouble trying to organize the cannery plant that he works at despite her objections. She goes back to her parents right when Japanese forces attack Pearl Habor. The police arrests all the first generation men. Jack rejoins his family in L.A. The family is interned and Jack is drafted.The movie moves deliberately. It takes its time to show the cultural differences and give the romance some space. It's a bit slow but it works as an old fashion romantic film. It doesn't really heighten the drama more than a simple melodrama level. The running time is over two hours long and probably would work better with less. This starts as a fine love story about Jack and Lily but that drama fades into the background in the second half. The camp part of the movie becomes more about telling different aspects of life through the family members.