Lengthy and curiously detached. British screenwriter/director Alan Parker (MIDNIGHT EXPRESS, MISSISSIPPI BURNING) here offers a depiction of the Japanese internment camps that were established in the US in the early 1940s following Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor. Quaid plays a union
organizer who meets Tomita in Los Angeles's Little Tokyo, before the bombing of Pearl Harbor. After the bombing, he is separated from his family, finally being imprisoned for going AWOL. Parker's intent seems to be to offer a traditional love story with the social and political turmoil of the
1930s and 40s serving merely as a backdrop, but the numerous issues he raises make it impossible for the film to function as an old-fashioned romance. The despair of the Japanese-Americans as they find their lives so ruthlessly torn apart and the almost maniacal prosecution of union activitists by
authorities in the 1930s are forcefully portrayed, but to the detriment of the main story. In short, the film suffers from too many characters and subplots, so that the project probably would have been better served had it been made as a six-hour television miniseries.
The performances, however, are first-rate. Quaid, in a role he seems born to play, is splendid, far outshining his previous work. Tomita (THE KARATE KID, PART II) is also memorable. The Japanese-Americans who fill the numerous roles in the Kawamura family and the internment camp are uniformly
excellent. Production values are high, with special mention going to Randy Edelman's terrific score, Geoffrey Kirkland's enviable production design, and authentic period costumes provided by Molly Maginnis. leave a comment
