Come See the Paradise

List Price: $14.98 Discount Price: $7.60

Customer Reviews:

At Long Last! [Posted on 2007-05-07]
I first saw this movie on cable TV some years ago and loved it. I waited for what seemed like an eternity to get it on DVD but, finally, they made it available. I'd willingly give it 10 stars but I guess 5 is the max. It is simply excellent and a must-have movie. Now if I could only get --on DVD-- the 1985 movie "Marie" (Sissy Spacek, et al) and the 1999 movie "Gideon" (Christopher Lambert), I'd be one happy man!

powerful..... [Posted on 2007-08-18]
I first saw this a requirement for a history class, when we were studying the effects of Japanese internment in the United States on those who were forced to stay in the barracks, due to Executive Order 9066, authorized by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in 1942. This order allowed local military commanders to designate "military areas" as "exclusion zones", from which "any or all persons may be excluded." This power was used to declare that all people of Japanese ancestry were excluded from the entire Pacific coast, including all of California and most of Oregon and Washington, except for those in internment camps. The seizure and relocation of all people of Japanese ancestry surged following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, when anyone of that background was viewed potentially as a spy and "anti-American." COME SEE THE PARADISE takes a look at that part of United States history.

Irish-American Jack McGurn (Dennis Quaid) gets a job at a movie theater and falls in love with his boss's daughter, Lily Kawamura (Tomlyn Tomita). This enrages her father who fires Jack and forbids him to see her. Despite this, the couple continues to see each other and they leave for Seattle. It is at this time that all people of Japanese ancestry are being forceably placed in the internment camps.

This film is well-acted and I think it's wonderful to see the story and experience of the internment camps brought to life as an engaging film. This part of our nation's history needs to be acknowledged and I think that this film really pays tribute to all of the people whose lives were turned upside down because of the government enforced order between 1942 and 1946.

Caught between two sides in a conflict [Posted on 2007-11-09]
This is an excellent movie about ordinary people who are caught between cultures in a time of war. This movie is a simple movie dealing with fear, prejudice, passion, and interracial relations in a time of conflict. It is a war movie about war on the homefront so don't expect any action scenes. It is one of my all time favorites.

Difficult to believe, but true [Posted on 2008-04-09]
This is the second time I see this film, so I was surprised by the dramatic reality of the Concentration Camps for Japanese in the USA the first time I saw it, not now. This time I was really captivated by how the whole human story and love story hurt, really hurt, and by a wonderful Dennis Quaid who I think played here maybe his best role as an actor.

Tomita saves a sinking ship... [Posted on 2008-10-27]
The message of this film is very important, and historically accurate.
But so much didn't work: Quaid's unresolved past and military service (going AWOL often and without punishment). His relationship with his cussing brother, his NYC movie union debacle. And why was there no mention of the 1.6 billion dollars paid in repairations at the movie's end?(Paid in 1998, this Film made in 1991).

Still, this movie tugs at the heart. Lost in all of this is the performance of one of the greatest unknown actresses our our time, Tamlyn Tomita. She is brilliant, and her talent is wasted opposite Quaid whose Irish accent appears and reappears. Sadly, guess who became famous?

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