Snow Falling on Cedars

Starring:Ethan Hawke, Youki Kudoh, Reeve Carney, Anne Suzuki, Rick Yune, Max von Sydow, James Rebhorn, James Cromwell, Richard Jenkins, Arija Bareikis, Eric Thal, Celia Weston, Daniel von Bargen, Akira Takayama, Ako (II), Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Zak Orth, Max Wright, Sam Shepard, Caroline Kava
Director: Scott Hicks
Studio: Universal Studios
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Amazon.com
Australian director Scott Hicks's follow-up to his widely beloved Shine comes as a small shock. Based on David Guterson's bestselling novel, Snow Falling on Cedars is far removed from the character-driven, pure storytelling of Shine and a comparative plunge into moody atmospherics. Action insinuates itself through the director's determined eye for watercolor composition and free-floating perspective, like random shoots of new growth in an overwhelming rain forest. It's impossible to be complacent as a viewer because Hicks's meditative style paradoxically forces one to locate and make the story happen internally.

The approach makes good aesthetic sense in that Guterson's story couches courtroom drama in dreamy textures, and Hicks is determined to reflect that even if it means turning an audience's idea of narrative on its head. He also gets a lot of help from the weather in the Pacific Northwest: the setting is one of Washington State's San Juan Islands, where rain embraces earth and sky in a singular, introverted personality. There, a Japanese American war hero (Rick Yune) stands accused of murdering a white fisherman in the years following World War II. His wife (Youki Kudoh) is the former childhood sweetheart and lover of a local newspaperman (Ethan Hawke) whose bitterness over the loss--as well as his helplessness during the internment of Japanese Americans, and the crusading legacy of his journalist father (Sam Shepard)--prevents him from coming to the defense of the accused man.

Amazon.com

Australian director Scott Hicks's follow-up to his widely beloved Shine comes as a small shock. Based on David Guterson's bestselling novel, Snow Falling on Cedars is far removed from the character-driven, pure storytelling of Shine and a comparative plunge into moody atmospherics. Action insinuates itself through the director's determined eye for watercolor composition and free-floating perspective, like random shoots of new growth in an overwhelming rain forest. It's impossible to be complacent as a viewer because Hicks's meditative style paradoxically forces one to locate and make the story happen internally.

Customer Reviews:

A Timeless Film.......2007-05-12

This is a great movie. It has everything: great scenery and background music, courtroom drama, young love, suspense, and human interest. I view it over and over again, learning something more each time about human frailties and prejudices. It is vastly superior to the trash being produced these days that relies on sex, violence, special effects and ear shattering sound without a plot and very little acting.

Interesting Meditation on Love.......2007-03-22

Ishmael Chambers and his story is really the central theme of this book; the treatment of the Japanese in general and the murder case really are just the "deux ex machina" that allow for the exploration of Ishmael's obsessive love for Hatsue, the Japanese girl he grew up and had an abortive teenage affair with.

It's his reaction to her unilaterally ending their affair that is the core of this story.

The circumstances were particularly hard for him: he receives her goodbye letter while sent away to war, just as he is about to lose his arm (obviously symbolic of the way her leaving him left him unwhole). Probably because of the psychological trauma of his injury, his deep love for Hatsue turns obsessive, and haunts him for a decade. Without rehashing the entire plot, the trial of Hatsue's husband for murder finally allows Ishmael to come to terms with the fact he's lost her, though this is never as explicitly stated in the book as it was in the movie by the defense attorney.

The reader must make some judgments: is not all TRUE love "obessive?" If a lover can be just casually tossed aside like a used Kleenex after [...], was there any "love" to begin with? Or was it really just base exploitation to satisfy an out of control hormone rush? If Ishmael had simply shrugged his shoulders after receiving Hatue's letter and said, "Oh well, bring on Lover #2," what good would such a "love" be?

On the other hand, his obsessiveness tortures Ishmael for years to come, and prevents him from ever finding a new love again. So really, his story is a decade-long search for peace. He finds it, but in a way that is not particularly noble. From the moment Hatsue dropped him, he felt a tremendous sense of powerlessness - it was HIS love to that was taken away, HIS affair nullified, and he never had ANY say in it, and the effect on Ishmael was similar to the most personal sort of rape. For a decade, Hatsue never made any effort to make him feel that their love had mattered to her at all - something which underscores the obessive nature of his continued feelings for her, because in reality they are quite irrational... it's quite clear she never truly "loved" him at all.

What finally sets Ishmael free isn't some insight into Hatue's feelings for him, though. No, what sets him free is a decision he makes near the end of the book: for years, he harbored the fantasy she would somehow come back to him. With her husband on trial for his life, it appears to him that the fantasy may in fact possibly come true, after all... yet in the end he makes a decision that frees Hatsue's husband and ensures she never can come back (if indeed she ever would, because in fact their love on her part was never true to begin with).

And that is what finally sets Ishmael free: this time around, it was HIS decision - not just a unilateral one by Hatsue, for now HE TOO concurred that their love should not continue. And with that sense of empowerment, he can finally set aside the awful hurt of victimization he felt when, in his eyes, she took something from him without ever asking him.

A very intelligent book, that provides some deep insights into the nature of human love. It raises important questions, and actually provides some answers. It's up to the reader to decide, though, if "love" really is just a selfish thing, good so long as it is convenient for oneself - but to be cast aside the moment a price is attached, regardless the effect on the other person. There is, of course, a very practical and hardheaded answer to that - but one must wonder what it says about the character of the person that gives it.

Review of Snow Falling on Cedars".......2006-11-30

The film "Snow falling on cedars" by Scott Hicks, which was released in May 2000,
Is about a murder trial in the US. The trial is influenced by prejudice and the clash of culture, between the Americans and Japanese people.

The movie transfers the flashback, which also appears in the book, pretty good by different camera devices, light effects and e.g. the echo of Hatsue's voice. The scenes are linked in a impressive way, so you can easily understand the plot.
You are overwhelmed by the flood of pictures from world war II or how the Japanese people are treated.

The cast is pretty good with actors like Ethan Hawke, Youki Kudoh, Reeve Carney.

A must, for everyone, who love love-story's and exciting movies about prejudice segregation and ww II.

Snow falling on my interest..........2006-06-12

See theres a problem with the way this film was shot, the way this film was directed. It's long, dreary, confussing and at times very boring. That said, the storyline, which I was completly unaware of when renting the film, is not too shaby. It takes place on one of Washington State's San Juan Islands where the weather is always cold, damp, snowing and yes...dreary. Here is where a Japanese American war hero (Rick Yune, 'The Fast and the Furious') is accused of murdering a white fisherman for his land. The man's only hope is the testimony of an American journalist (Ethan Hawke, 'Training Day') who just may have figured out the real events leading up to the mans death, but there is something holding him back from testifying. It's his bitter-love for the accused wife (Youki Kudoh, 'Memiors of a Geisha'). They grew up together and were once lovers, but their racial differences forced them apart. Set in the 1950's shortly after WWII when the Japanese were hated by most American's the injustice is shown in the treatment of the trial and of the accused, and through flashbacks we can see how everyone was affected by the Pearl Harbor incident and so-on. The film as a whole, the idea and the acting is decent, at times brilliant, but with all the flashbacks it becomes difficult to understand whats really going on. So, three and a half stars is the best I can do. If the direction had been just slightly different then I may have been better pleased.

nibbling on kelp.......2006-04-26

Snow falling on ceders has all the warmth and cheer of the wet, dismal, cold and foggy weather of the region. Utterly depressing.

The plot is plodding and stale. No surprises.

None of the characters can one identify or sympathise with. That every group is bigoted is nothing new.

The ending not worth waiting for.

Scenery is lovely as usual but the only redeeming feature of this film is that it portrays the region as it was that began dying out as I was born. The lumber industry and fishing are no longer what they once were. The ferry boats and strawberry fields are still there but tourism is now the biggy.

Average customer rating:

Snow Falling on Cedars [Region 2]
Starring: Ethan Hawke , Youki Kudoh , Reeve Carney , Anne Suzuki , and Rick Yune
Director: Scott Hicks
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Thrillers | Mystery & Suspense | Genres | DVD | Video

( S ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
ASIN: B00004UF16

Average customer rating:

Snow Falling on Cedars [Region 2]
Starring: Ethan Hawke , Youki Kudoh , Reeve Carney , Anne Suzuki , and Rick Yune
Director: Scott Hicks
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Thrillers | Mystery & Suspense | Genres | DVD | Video

( S ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
ASIN: B00004YA9X

Average customer rating:

Snow Falling on Cedars [Region 2]
Starring: Ethan Hawke , Youki Kudoh , Reeve Carney , Anne Suzuki , and Rick Yune
Director: Scott Hicks
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Thrillers | Mystery & Suspense | Genres | DVD | Video

( S ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
ASIN: B0000A5BTR

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