Come See the Paradise

Plot synopsis:
In 1936, Jack McGurn (Quaid) is a motion picture projectionist, involved in a campaign of harassment against non-union theaters in New York City. One such attack turns fatal, as one of his fellow union members starts a fire. McGurn's boss, knowing that the feelings of guilt would likely cause Jack to go to the police, urges him to leave the area. Jack moves to Los Angeles where his brother Gerry lives. Jack's role as a "sweatshop lawyer" strains an already-rocky relationship with Gerry who is willing to have any job, barely keeping his family afloat during the Great Depression.
Taking the name McGann, Jack finds a job as a projectionist (ironically, non-union) in a movie theater run by a Japanese American family. He falls in love with Lily Kawamura, his boss' daughter. Forbidden to see one another by her Issei parents and banned from marrying by California law, the couple elopes to Seattle, where they marry and have a daughter, Mini.
When World War II breaks out, Lily and their daughter are caught up in the Japanese American internment, rounded up and sent to Manzanar. Jack, away on a trip, is drafted into the United States Army with no chance to help his family prepare for their imprisonment.
Finally visiting the camp, he arranges a private meeting with his wife's father, telling him that he has gone AWOL and wants to stay with them, whatever they have to go through. They are his family now and he belongs with them. The older man counsels him to return to the Army, and says that he now believes that Jack is truly in love with Lily, and a worthy husband.
Returning, ready to face his punishment for desertion, he is met by FBI agents, who have identified "McGann" as being the McGurn wanted for his part in the arson of years before.
The story is told in flashback as Lily tells the now pre-adolescent Mini (King) about the father and the life that she barely remembers, as the two of them are walking to a rural train station. The train arrives and they reunite with Jack, who has served his time in prison and finally is returning to his family.
=== Origin of the title ===
The title of the film came from a line of a poem by Russian poet Anna Akhmatova. Writer Alan Parker was unable to find the original poem and wrote his own poem before writing the script to try and say what the film would say:
We all dream our American dreams
When we're awake and when we sleep
So much hope that grief belies
Far beyond the lies and sighs
Because dreams are free
And so are we
Come See the Paradise

Tags: flashback

Review:
"Come See The Paradise" is a forgotten gem of a film that takes place during one of the United States' darkest and most shameful times.
At the onset of World War II, Japanese-Americans were put into internment camps This injustice lasted for several years.
It tells the story of Jack McGurn (Dennis Quaid), an Irish-American labor organizer who falls in love with Lily Kawamura (Tamlyn Tomita), a young girl who lives with her large family in San Fransisco.
Soon after, Pearl Harbor is bombed, the Kawamuras are shuttled off to various camps (except Mr. Kawamura who is believed to be a traitor), and Jack is forced into the army.Like many films, "Come See The Paradise" is about the strength of love.
Films like this and "The Joy Luck Club" prove that she is one of the most talented and under-used actresses.Some have complained that this film uses an "American" character to tell the story of a "Japanese" family.
Instead, take a look at Roger Ebert's fine review under the External review portion of IMDb. I first purchased this film back in the days of the Laser Disc, and I know that my "ancient by today's standards" Pioneer player....and perhaps I'm in violation of copyright laws, but I am transferring all my laser discs to DVD, and I cannot possibly think of a finer film to witness the discriminatory laws that existed during the early days of WWII....even if the focus is on an Irish-American played by Dennis Quaid....and you must see the early scene in which he dances/sings to a Japanese song that he has memorized by his position as Projectionist in a Japanese-American theatre in San Francisco.
This is one of the most powerful films that I have seen about the Japanese-American experience in the internment camps during WW2.The think that struck me from the very beginning was that these folk were just as American as any of us.They,too,were just trying to live the American Dream,until the policies of the US Government took their dreams away from them.History has a bad habit of repeating itself,and movies like this remind us that regardless of race,creed,or color,we're all  just Americans.This was a bad time for US domestic policy,and hopefully a shameful policy like this will never rear its ugly head again in our country..
Although Alan Parker allows for an accurate (for the most part) and revealing look at life in the internment camps, we rarely see anything from Jack's (Dennis Quaid) perspective.
I know that the studios have come a long way but they need to make more movies like this one, and believe that there is an audience (not obviously Asian) interested in seeing them.
The scenes showing Lily and her family forced out of their homes by Americans, marching to the train station in total silence except for their haunting, now-forbidden Japanese music are always received with great concentration and silence by my classes--a high tribute to Mr. Parker's ability to let a picture speak for itself.
Come to the Paradise offers a refreshingly different viewpoint of a critical point in American history for those of us who prefer a little something to chew on besides popcorn at the movies..
Also seemingly taken away is the family life of an American man and his Japanese soulmate.This is powerful material and COME SEE THE PARADISE does well as a first attempt.
Surely, sooner or later more talented directors will revisit this bit of history and hit a home run.Few movie fans know that STAR TREK's George Takei (Mr. Sulu) lived with his family in these California concentration camps during WWII.
Dennis Quaid and Tamlyn Tomita play the romantic interest of the picture, Quaid playing a regular Joe who comes to work at a movie theater in Little Tokyo, meets the boss's daughter played by Tomita, and soon they fall for each other quite deeply.
Then come the internment camps, the camps created as a homegrown quasi concentration camp for the Japanese, where in Lily is once again with her family, away from her great love.
When we think of camps, we usually think about how Americans were heroes who liberated Nazi camps during the second World War. However, this story lets you observe the many aspects of Japanese internment and how many American citizens were imprisoned by the way that they looked rather than for having committed a crime.
The movie could have retold the exact same story and saved us about 45 minutes in telling us about Japanese internment without the use of his character.
As a result, the parts of the film that deal with internment and other injustices faced by people of Japanese descent are framed inherently as secondary aspects of the story.
Before World War II, people of Japanese descent were prevented from receiving citizenship by US immigration policies, but during internment, these people were also asked to swear loyalty to the United States, effectively challenging their identity as either Japanese or American.
While this film makes an obvious effort to highlight the widespread prejudice and violence against Japanese Americans in the mid-twentieth century, it relies on racial stereotypes and a pathetic love story.
As a character, Jack/Dennis Quaid (one of the few white actors in the film) is completely unnecessary to the storyline, and makes leaves the impression that the story is only significant because it affects the life of a good ol' American boy.
French, German, Dutch?"The film is definitely at its most emotionally powerful in its superb middle section, which beautifully dramatizes, in flashback, the shameful deportation of these Japanese-American citizens to interment camps in California, for no crime more serious than simply being of Japanese descent.
In general, it can be estimated that the film is not American, and it was made against the United States based on the history of the Second World War and according to how the US was treated by its immigrants..
Alan Parker's Come See The Paradise tackles a little spoken of, tragic period of American history: the internment of thousands of Japanese families in prison camps following the attack on Pearl Harbour, which sparked World War II.
Dennis Quaid plays an Irish American man who falls in love with a Japanese girl (Tamlyn Tomita), and over a few years begins a life with her.
It starts in 1936 when angry union organizer Jack (Dennis Quaid) meets beautiful Japanese-American Lily (Tamlyn Tomita) and falls in love.
All Japanese people, Americans or not, lost their homes, their businesses and were shipped out to internment camps to "protect" them.
It shows how the camps affect Lilly, her family and Jack.As far as I know this is the only commercial film to deal with one of the more horrifying chapters in American history.
It tried to cram the following into one plot:the American Guy/Asian Girl relationshipWorld War IIthe Draftinternment campsunion workersdeath in the familygeneric family issuesshady lawyersIt also had "gripping" child acting, hit-you-over-the-head symbolism, horrible, synthesized orchestrated music, flashbacks, characters who didn't look any older "10 years later", a girl whose face changed 3 times as she got older, historical inaccuracy, and unresolved conflict (a conflict which the entire first half of the film was centered around).Not once did it feel like we were in the 1940's.
Details one of the shadier acts in US history - the internment of Japanese-Americans in camps during World War 2.
The film takes place during WWII and like "Snow Falling on Cedars" (another great story about the anti-Japanse movement during this time) is about an American, who falls in love with a Japanese women.
Back to the movie: Tamyln Tomita as the love interest, Lily Yuriko , is absolutely great portraying all the anguish of a women in love, but then feels pain and sorrow when she sees her own people being put in Concentration Camps by the Americans and are given no rights, no real jobs (except menial low paying ones) and no hope.
If you don't cry watching this movie there is something wrong with you as "Come See The Paradise" by Alan Parker has great dramatic performance , a great score by Randy Edelman and a true life story that SHOULD NOT be forgotten.
The movie tells the often overlooked and not widely known story of Japanese Americans before, during and after WWII.
Of the only good aspects of the film is the accuracy with which it portrayed the experience of Japanese Americans in internment camps.
However, it was completely ridiculous to create a film about such a shameful time in American history through the lens of a love story, especially one riddled with sexism and racial stereotypes.
In that sense, Come See the Paradise was a surprisingly historically well-portrayed film, considering that it is a movie made in the US about Japanese internment camp.
The movie is slightly messy before the characters get interned in the camp, which happens relatively later in the film than I expected.
Come See the Paradise, a film about Japanese-American relocation and encampment during the Second World War, is very much Hollywood's version and representation of a camp experience.
It follows the love story between a projectionist, played by Dennis Quaid, and an American-born woman of Japanese descent, played by Tamlyn Tomita.
In a historical context, the movie downplayed much of the rampant racism prevalent towards Japanese-Americans at the time.
Overall, Come See the Paradise is a film clearly intended for majority audiences, and while it does talk about Japanese internment, the primary focus is much more the love story than a depiction of camp life..
Come See The Paradise is an insult to the experiences that Japanese Americans and millions of other interned people have experienced.
The film depicts the unconstitutional internment of Japanese American citizens and immigrants during World War II, but only does so through the story of an interracial couple.
While the film could have addressed the social conflicts that an interracial couple would have faced at the time (and too often still face today), it falls short of truly depicting the American hatred for Japanese immigrants during World War II.
The film spends entirely too long on the relationship between Jack (Dennis Quaid) and Lily (Tomita Tomlyn), and far too little time on the ways in which internment affected Japanese people living in America during and after internment.
Although this movie is not anything close to what it could have been, there is a certain amount of credit that should be given to the producers and directors for portraying the lives and struggle of Japanese-American citizens and immigrants in their most dire times.
The depiction of Mr. Kawamura's decline is quite representative of the way in which the camps and the country stripped away any sense of belonging and pride from the Japanese citizens and immigrants.
The film Come See the Paradise is a fairly standard Hollywood depiction of internment camps in the sense that it fails to focus on the many of the issues concerning internment and instead spends most of the film following an unbelievable and not convincing love story.
If one wants to portray this event in American history, the film must be tactful and treat the stories with care-Come See the Paradise failed to do this in almost every scene in the movie.
The majority of movie, which runs two hours and eighteen minutes long, follows the relationship of Lucy Kawamura, an American citizen of Japanese descent portrayed by Tamlyn Tomita, and Jack McGurn, an Irish American played by Dennis Quaid who once again proves he can only be called an actor on a technicality.
The film should have remained focused on the Kawamura family's experiences within the camp and attempt to portray the hardships and complex decisions which emerged during the course of the internment.
While the main plot line focuses entirely too much on the love story between Jack and Lily, there are some parts of the film that make it worthwhile.There was some redeemable aspects of the film.
As the title of my review states, I enjoyed Come See the Paradise and feel as though it represented Japanese-American internment well, but the film did make some choices with which I do not agree.The film did well in depicting internment.
One thing that some Americans may struggle with is being critical of the country many call "the land of the free", but this film does not shy away from criticizing the United States' decision to unjustly intern those of Japanese descent during World War II.
This can be seen when Lily argues with white camp officials, calling the camp a prison and when Charlie, an American citizen who barely spoke any Japanese, repatriates to Japan after the war, disgusted with the internment.
Seeing a Hollywood film about American citizens encamped could open viewer's eyes to an ugly part of the United States' history and serve as a warning that freedoms can be infringed upon and that we must do our part to stop anything like this from happening within the United States again.The film also did a decent job at showing how the camp interrupted the lives of Japanese-Americans.
The camps were the experiences of Japanese-Americans and people of Japanese descent, so I believe the focus should have been solely on them without the inclusion of a white male character although I realize that without Dennis Quaid, the film might not have accessed as wide of an audience as it did..
"Come See the Paradise" is nothing short of an insulting representation of what occurred in Japanese internment camps during World War II.
The film subsequently becomes a giant history lesson, Parker delving into the Untied States' treatment of Japanese Americans (anti-miscegenation laws etc), their detention in massive concentration camps, their subsequent loss of civil liberties , and the plights of immigrant communities during the early 20th century.In many ways, "Come See The Paradise" finds Parker attempting to atone for his earlier picture, "Mississippi Burning".
Dennis Quaid, always likable, himself at times seems to be torn out of some Charlie Chaplin movie, bumbling about as the world goes to hell.According to some, "Paradise" was the first American film to directly show the Japanese-American internment camps, though many other films indirectly conveyed the ordeals of the Japanese diaspora.
My biggest question after watching this film is the necessity of including a love story amongst a topic that could constitute its own movie.
Sure, the love story adds an aspect of intrigue and brings people to the movie by playing up the romantic storyline, but, in actually, the depicted relationship is wildly inaccurate in a historical sense.
In terms of historical accuracies, there was good attention to detail in general, though the love story is an unnecessary aspect of the film.
The main redeeming aspect of this film is that it spreads the story of Japanese internment to Hollywood's audiences, but why must this be done through an aspect of love?
The movie "Come See the Paradise" was accurate in the fact that after the Pearl Harbor Attack, by the Japanese, the United States Government decided to relocate the Japanese into isolated internment camps in fear that some could be spies working at perhaps a bigger attack within America instead of on the coast.
In the movie, Lily's family is forced to move out and forced into an internment camp without knowing why or when they will be released.
In addition, Lily and Jack, Dennis Quaid's character, have had a daughter, who goes into the camp with her mother, while Jack goes into the Army, but not before one of the most lacerating scenes in the film, when Jack takes his little daughter to meet Santa Claus, and Santa refuses to let the child sit on his lap.
This film, though not as historical and educational as it could have been on the topic of Japanese internment camps during World War II, was not meant to be a historical documentary.
The film depicts the lives of Japanese American citizens as their lives undergo immense changes with the beginning of internment camps.
The main focus of this movie is the love story between Jack and Lily, however there are some historically accurate parts of the film worth paying attention to.
The movie then spends a short amount of time depicting life inside the camp, however we get glimpses of the struggles facing those encamped.
It is a hollywood film made for a large audience, and this audience doesn't want a documentary on Japanese internment camps.
The love story between jack and Lily was 100% necessary to attract a large audience because that is the type of thing Americans look for in a film.
It's better to have a movie with some historical facts and other faults that a large audience will watch than a completely historically accurate film which will only attract those already interested in history.
I think this film does a decent job depicting the experiences of Japanese Americans during World War II.
What the movie best achieves though is a depiction of life within the internment camps and the costs of upheaval for many Japanese Americans.
With that, the internment experience showed the further trials that Japanese Americans had to face.
The unconstitutional internment of Japanese-Americans during WW2 is one of those little-known tragedies of history.
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.