Snow Falling on Cedars opens with a hazy mist hovering over the harbor of the fictitious San Piedro Island in the post-WWII Pacific Northwest. As a boat cuts through the fog, it chances upon a lifeless body tangled in fishing nets – a murder scene as chilling as the harbor’s wet, dreary atmosphere. Suspicions surrounding the mysterious death of the Anglo fisherman befall Kazuo Miyamoto, a second generation Asian-American who was swindled by the deceased man’s family in a land deal. As Kazuo’s trial commences, racial tensions within the small town escalate and seep into the courtroom. After the court’s dramatic opening arguments, the son of the small town’s newspaper editor, Ishmael Chambers, sits stoically in the rear balcony of the dimly-lit courtroom and gazes upon Kazuo’s distraught wife, Hatsue Imada. Through a series of flashbacks it is revealed that Ishmael and Hatsue were former childhood lovers, and their fragile relationship is broken when Hatsue and her family were trucked off to internment camps during the War.
Rather than being a courtroom drama, Cedars is primarily a commentary on the relationship between Anglo and Asian communities in 1940s America, and the film methodically weaves Kazuo’s trial with flashbacks of Ishmael and Hatsue’s relationship to capture this theme. The trial illustrates anti-Japanese sentiment during the period, and racist overtones are obviously present throughout the trial: the word ‘Jap’ is casually tossed around the courtroom, and overzealous witnesses draw superficial assumptions about the evidence and hastily conclude that only a ‘Jap’ could have performed such a deed.
Complementing these themes are the flashbacks of the young, star-crossed lovers. The two children, each belonging to a different race and culture, seek refuge from society’s judgmental eyes underneath the cavernous roots of a large cedar tree. After retreating from the thumping rain into their secret hiding place on day, Hatsue innocently asks, “Do you think this is wrong?” To this Ishmael replies, “Your friends would. Your dad would kill me.”
Their love is forbidden, and this remains unconfirmed until Hatsue’s mother intercepts a letter from Ishmael and discovers their secret. Responding to her mother’s disbelief, Hatsue pulls out a letter intended for Ishmael and reads it aloud: “Dear Ishmael . . . When we met the last time in the cedar tree, and I felt your body move against mine, I knew with certainly that everything was wrong. I knew we could never be right together.” Prejudice and its abominable creation, internment camps, make their love impossible and tear them apart.
Unfortunately, the thematic elements of Cedars cannot match its meticulous and poetic cinematography. The entire film seems to be a missed opportunity; it had the potential to become a memorable and insightful film about race relations – such as Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing – but Cedars falls short of such a standard. The film’s primary flaw is that it never achieves parity between Asian and Anglo experiences: it primarily focuses on Ishmael’s moral dilemmas and memories of Hatsue, while Hatsue’s experience, although briefly depicted, remains partially unexplored. Kazuo lacks any depth or characterization which leaves the audience rooting for his cheeky, white lawyer instead. Needless to say, the Asian characters in Cedars are neglected. They are not fully developed and connected to the audience, and without these elements it is more difficult to relate and sympathize with their plight. It is truly unfortunate that these characters cannot match the depth and complexity of the environment which surrounds them.
The shallowness of the characters ultimately handicaps the film’s theme of racism. To be certain, Cedars does manage to adequately convey the anti-Japanese sentiment of the era and its effects on society, but without sympathetic and relatable characters, the audience cannot experience the consequences of this racism on an emotional or personal level. Thus, the emotional impact of the film is softened.
Essentially, Snow Falling on Cedars is a noble and visually captivating effort to explore Asian-Anglo relations in 1940s America, but it lacks sufficient character development and parity to become a classic.
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