Snow Falling on Cedars

Rating:
Summary: I Liked It, But What Do I Know?
Review: It's just stunning to me to read here more negative reviews for a nice movie like this than for pieces of trash like "American Psycho" or "Fargo." Maybe movies like this are judged by a different standard.

True, this film was made in a bit of an "arty" fashion, full of flashbacks and so on. But I didn't have any trouble following the story. And I must be dumber than a box of rocks, seeing how I couldn't detect that "American Psycho" was a masterful parody of how things were in the 1980's. Though I can't really remember that the 1980's were quite like that.

Anyway, I might have given this one 4 1/2 stars, but 5 will do.

Rating:
Summary: I read the book and watched the film
Review: For some reason, a great many viewers seem to have strong negative feelings about this film. I think it is a neglected beauty, both a faithful adaptation of a fine book, and a near perfect memory piece. A complex mixture of love, loss, and various injustices wrought by war, the film rewards in many ways. The performances are strong, as is the direction, and the screenplay.Perhaps its brooding tone, shifts in time, and portrayal of a shameful period in US/Japanese relationships are an unsettling brew for the casual movie viewer. This is a fine DVD presentation of an excellent feature.

Rating:
Summary: A failure for the most part
Review: I went into this movie with high hopes. Conceptually, the story is fantastic, and one that an immense amount could have been done with on film...but alas, it was more often than not an utter waste of time. I found myself wanting to turn it off several times throughout the movie (I reserve the word "film" for fine pieces of cinema.)

Instead of a great film, what we are presented is a largely self-indulgently directed movie with a flimsy script. Instead of capturing the natural beauty of the islands of the Pacific northwest, we are instead "treated" to blurry shots and completely silly flashback sequences (the underwater sequence of Ethan Hawke during the war stands out in my mind as the worst.) Not only do you have these tackily shot scenes, but then you have scenes with tacky subject matter: a sequence of 13 year olds making out and having sex? It was a tasteless scene filled with suggestive imagery (a drop of water dripping off of a pointed leaf.)

The only reason I gave this movie two stars and not one star is because it included some historical accuracy of the ugly fact that American citizens of Japanese heritage were locked in concentration camps in the United States during World War II. (One that was especially dubious since there were no German or Italian camps...the prejudice against the Japanese was clearly a racial issue.) Hopefully this movie at least helped enlighten folks on something typically left out of American history books.

The other thing that merritted a star was defense lawyer's (Max von Sydow) closing monologue during the trial scene. After sitting through a dull movie, that monologue made watching the movie a worthwhile effort. I would like to have that bit of script on tape to listen to again and again.

All in all, I would say avoid this movie, but if you want a great cinematic moment just skip to the defense lawywer's closing statements. When I watched, people actually clapped after the monologue!

Rating:
Summary: Very different
Review: Although this movie is slow moving, especially during the court trial, it's a very beautiful movie. Not only is it visually appealing but it's a movie that doesn't require words. You can sense what the characters are feeling just by watching and reading their body language and that's what makes this movie very moving and powerful. The most powerful and moving movies are the ones in which you can sense the character's emotions without hearing them speak. Throughout the movie, I felt sorry for Ishmael because he couldn't get over his Katsu and still had no much love for her. At the same time I had no hard feelings towards Katsu because she was doing what she felt was right.

Rating:
Summary: Melody and Melancholy
Review: Beautiful story based on the book by David Guterson. Lots of terrific symbolism in both the book and the movie. The story revolves arond Ishmael Chamber (Ethan Hawke). He is very bitter and so wooden about life ever since his Japanese girlfriend from teenage years, Hatsue Imada (Youki Kudoh) left him for another (Japanese) guy , Kazuo (Rick Yune, but he is actually Korean in reality)because of racial dicrimination. When Kazuo goes to trial for alleged murder, Ishmael is sure this is his chance to get Hatsue back. It is somewhat complicated, and the movie is a little confusing because of all the flashbacks. Even so, Hicks does a fine job, both in cinemotography (lovely dripping snow and heart-wrenching music) and the casting of the actors. Youki Kudoh has the best performance next to Max Von Sydow-- she is very graceful, delicate, and in a certain way, very sexy (your eyes are GLUED to her fragile, yet open, beauty). Plus this is a good cast because you get to see the big stars (Ethan Hawke, James Cromwell, Samuel Shepard, and Max), the Asian stars (Youki Kudoh and Rick Yune-- they make a lovely couple!), and the children (Reeve Carney and Anne Suzuki). Once you watch the film, you will want to watch it again and again. It is so heart-wrenching and you really feel with all the characters. The music really adds a lot to the mood. I commend you! Fine job!

Rating:
Summary: Utter rubbish
Review: Director Scott Hicks drenches his film adaptation of David Guterson's novel in torrents of lovely but perfectly meaningless lyrical imagery, perhaps believing that empty MTV-style visual splendor can serve in place of the human drama in which this movie is so spectacularly lacking. More like participants in a music video than flesh and blood human beings, the actors seem to have been persuaded that striking melancholy poses and exchanging soulful looks are the best ways of delineating character. All turn in dramatically inert performances, particularly Ethan Hawke as the conflicted journalist involved in the murder trial of a Japanese-American. Of course it would have been difficult for even the most accomplished actors to do otherwise, given the flimsy, hackneyed script, with its embarrassingly simplistic treatment of a complex historical event. As is usual with Hollywood movies dealing with racial discrimination, the focus here is not on those who actually suffered the injustice, but on the white spectators, whose sympathy for the victims we are asked to applaud. The Japanese American characters in this film--portrayed as infuriatingly docile and helpless, like some higher species of domestic pet--are present merely as adjuncts to the drama of guilt and redemption taking place among the white characters. Can you tell I really hated this movie?

Rating:
Summary: possibly the best film ever!
Review: A simple thing will be said. This film is absolutely the best at portraying humanity! Possibly the best film I have ever seen in my whole life. It is my favorite for sure!

Rating:
Summary: This is a tough one
Review: I think this is one of the most beautiful movies ever made. Having said this, it apparently one of the hardest movies to review.

People either love the movie or think it is a prententious overblown artistic flop.

Reading the various reviews is very entertaining. Read as many of the reviews as you can and than watch the movie.

What is your opinion?

Rating:
Summary: Impassioned Drudgery
Review: This movie, though it tells a compelling story, it simply filled with drudgery. I have not read the book, and still may, but I also consider the story line to be absolutely full of a race-baiting mentality. I do not recommend "Snow Falling on Cedars."

Rating:
Summary: Satisfying, But Doesn't Linger
Review: Snow Falling on Cedars is like an incredibly rich dessert; it satisfies and satisfies sublimely, but only for the moment. Not that there is anything wrong with dessert. There isn't and Snow Falling on Cedars was surely an incredibly complex dessert to make. It is a complicated multi-layered set of stories that shift back and forth in time and place.

The plot, adapted from David Guterson's novel of the same name, concerns a Japanese-American war hero (Rick Yune) who, upon returning home to the United States, finds himself arrested for murder. This is the main plotline, however there are several emotionally-involving subplots. One involves a love affair gone wrong between the town's one-armed journalist (Ethan Hawke) and the war hero's wife (Youko Kudoh). Another centers on a land dispute that has been raging for generations and yet another on the horrors of war and post-war racism. All in all, Snow Falling on Cedars is a variety of ingredients that don't immediately gel into one perfect mold.

Director Scott Hicks (Shine) lingers on some aspects of the story while letting others simmer on a back burner. The film operates within a frame, of sorts, beginning and ending with a court case, but between that frame we move through World War II, the interment of Japanese-Americans in camps and the pain of young love gone wrong.

Hicks and co-screenwriter Ron Bass do manage to linger on the most pivotal and emotionally-riveting moments, positioning them in relative isolation so that each has enough time and substance in which to make an emotional impression on the audience.

There are "side trips" in this movie though, that just don't manage to fuse and integrate with the whole, the most glaring being one showing the town's young, one-armed journalist swimming through a sea of naked, dead bodies--presumably during the D-Day invasion--but we really never know. This is too bad, because this is an important scene and showcases the theme of Guterson's book, i.e., that we kill and maim one another at every twist and turn for no good reason at all.

Unfortunately, this pivotal moment came a little too late in the film to engage the audience emotionally. We needed closure but we felt rushed, especially after the lengthy and sometimes laborious buildup.

The movie was shot in British Columbia and the scenery is gorgeous and very evocative of the emotions portrayed by the characters. Visually, Snow Falling on Cedars is just about as good as it gets.

Snow Falling on Cedars is a wonderful effort and it does contain some tremendous moments of great beauty and emotional intensity, but it just misses the mark of emotional coherence to fully engage the audience and make a thoroughly lasting impression.