Product: Snow Falling on Cedars (2000)
Rating: 1.0
Marginalizes most interesting characters
It's not a bad film and is to be commended for powerfully capturing the forcing of Americans of Japanese descent into crudely made, wooden shacks in the middle of deserts or dry lake beds.But the most interesting characters are mere objects/plot devices to push the story along. They aren't allowed to tell their own stories. We solely see them through the eyes of the white characters.The father, played by Cary Hiroyuki Tagawa and his son, played by Rick Yune, have an interesting story to be told -- the father who teaches his son to be strong, silent and have resolve, who is then interned into America's concentration camps, and the son, a WWII veteran, comes back to claim his father's land which was sold off while they were gone. Unfortunately, you don't hear it in this movie. ...This movie is basically about a sometimes whiny man who can't live up to his father's legacy as a lawyer, and like an immature person, would rather hold a grudge than do what is right, that is, until the end.