In "To Kill a Mockingbird", a man, Tom Robinson, is accused of rape, largely because he is African-American, and because he was kissed by a white woman in the rural 1930's South. In "Snow Falling on Cedars", a Japanese-American in the Northwest is accused of murder because a white fisherman is found dead in his fishing net not long after World War II. The setting is in the wake of racial animosity because of the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. The case is largely brought forth because of prejudicial attitudes prevalent at the time rather than strong evidence. (Ironically, German-Americans did not suffer the same fate as the Japanese during the same period.) The brilliance of the film, which I assume is more or less faithful to the book, is its handling of several separate but intertwined stories. At the forefront is the murder trial of Kazuo Miyamoto, a young Japanese-American in the 1950's who fought on the American side of World War II, played brilliantly understated by Rick Yune. He is accused of murdering Carl Heine, a fellow fisherman, who now has land previously owned by Japanese who were forced to give it up (as well as most of their possessions) when they were unjustly forced into interment camps on the West Coast.The other stories involve Hatsue Miyamoto (played wonderfully by Youki Kudoh) and Ishmael Chambers (Ethan Hawke in possibly his best performance since "Reality Bites") as star-crossed lovers before adulthood. We learn, largely through flash-backs, that the American white boy and Japanese girl met and fell in love on the eve of Japanese-American internment. Their story parallels the later court case, and the loss of their relationship is because of the racial divides imposed by the US Government, fearing that all Japanese-Americans were suspect because of their ancestry, rather than any evidence they were actually secretly in conspiracy with the Japanese Empire. The love between Hatsue and Ishmael is told through flash-backs. Hatsue is now the wife of the accused, and Ishmael has followed in the footsteps of his father and become a reporter and journalist. We learn that Ishmael still has strong feelings for the woman who once loved him when they were but children, but he is side-lined from their lives.Like "Mockingbird", "Cedars" is largely about the tragedy of prejudice and racism. One aspect of the story which emerges, possibly not consciously, is how the Japanese-Americans are largely similar to their white counterparts. They like much of the popular American music of the 1940's, they play games, they enjoy good food and wine. Of course, their interests in Buddhism are different, but I believe the point of the story is that the similarities between cultures are often overlooked in favor of our few differences. Although most of the focus is on the white community being wary of their Japanese neighbors, in a poignant scene, the young Hatsue is told by her good-intentioned mother that her daughter should not look at white boys, and should marry a Japanese boy. So prejudice cuts in both directions, often with tragic results. Some of the most heinous crimes in human history are perpetrated out of fear. And if someday, we could let go of our fears of "the other", maybe the world would be a better place.

This movie made no sense to anyone in my house. It barely made sense to me and I read the book. Nothing in the movie tied together, major details of the story were left out. There was easy too many flashes through information that made the story. The music was good to bring you in emotionally but they weren't the same emotions the book brought about. I was very disappointed in the entire portrayal of the trial we,weren't even sure what the evidence was or how it applied to the case because it was all done behind music. And...the title is Snow Falling on Cedars and they barely talked about the storm. People were expected to put too much thought into this to make it all make sense.

This movie is so slow that I had time to figure out each and every plot twist. Art does not have to be boring. The director Scott Hicks is trying real hard to be Ingmar Bergman and he fails badly. I believe in watching a film from the beginning to the very end but I really wanted to walk out of this one half way. The scenes are all so slow that you have time to figure them out and jump the the surprise twist before it happens. All the interesting bits are shown in jump cuts and the dull bits are left on the screen until you want to scream. If you want to see an interesting movie with lots of snow go to Fargo. A friend of mine walked out and asked me the next day how it ended. I asked her go guess. And she told me her what she thought the ending was. And she was right! "Bad art is bad for the soul." Oscar Wilde

This is probably the worst movie I have ever seen in my life, and the first video rental that made me and a buddy push the fast-forward button more than three times. When you have two religious viewers show the most emotion when a character swears at his former love while losing a limb, you know the movie is really bad. Snow falling on cedars has way too many shots of snow actually falling on cedars. And snow falling on the ground. And people talking like they are watching snow falling. Soooo boring. Believe me, it is much better to simply sit in front of your apartment window and watch the snow actually fall then to waste money renting this movie.