Billie Morin This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Ezmae Chang This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Payno I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Delight Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

SnoopyStyle It's 1950s Washington State. Fisherman Carl Heine's body is found. Japanese fisherman Kabuo Miyamoto is accused of the murder. Sheriff Art Moran (Richard Jenkins) and prosecutor Alvin Hooks (James Rebhorn) lead the prosecution. Nels Gudmundsson (Max von Sydow) is the defense lawyer. Judge Fielding (James Cromwell) presides over the court. Ishmael Chambers (Ethan Hawke) is the only reporter in this small town. He's a returning vet with only one arm who still loves Kazuo's wife Hatsue from his childhood. In flashbacks, Ishmael and Hatsue struggle against war paranoia. Ishmael's father Arthur Chambers (Sam Shepard) is hounded for supporting the Japanese in his newspaper.It's got the snowy romantic moody atmosphere. However it lives too much off of it. The murder mystery is given short shrift. While watching the movie, I kept wanting the case be presented in a coherent way. The romance, the operatic style, and the prejudice are important but they keep getting into the way of the trial and investigation. This needs a short section where Sheriff Moran explains the case against Kabuo in a neat tidy package.

eapplebaum Watching this film is like having someone holding onto my heart so tight it's strangled. The hate that lives in the hearts of some people is so dark and cold and mean it's devastating. Too many do not know how Japanese immigrants were treated in the United States not even a century ago. What's so shameful is the perpetrators were White Europeans who were immigrants themselves from Germany, Sweden, Holland, Great Briton. It's a disgrace on modern society during its growing stages to know how non-whites were treated with such disdain and disrespect. It makes me angry and deeply disheartened at the same time. It would not be so bad if we, as a society could say that was a dark time we have evolved from, but alas, it is still happening. there are So many people who feel terrible hate and disdain against people other than their own color, race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, etc., etc., we have not learned, we grow so slowly.

e_mcvey 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.

dwpollar 1st watched 8/26/2006 - 6 out of 10(Dir-Scott Hicks): Overly atmospheric but effective drama about a trial surrounding the death of a local fisherman in a post WWII Japanese-racist local town. The man on trial for the possible murder of this local man happens to be of Japanese descent. The story is shown in the eyes of a local reporter played by Ethan Hawke who's past reveals a relationship with the defendant's wife which is used as an extra storyline to explore the racism against Japanese descendants in the United States in the early 50's shortly after World War II ends. The internment camps that the Japanese were forced into by the Americans is explored for the first time in the movies here as well. This blackmark on American history is finally revealed and it is evident that this is part of the purpose of the filmmakers in this movie that could have been a simple trial-based murder mystery. It is obvious though that director Scott Hicks wanted to make this as complex as possible which lends to some of it's flaws. That complexity is explored visually for the most part with very little dialogue which is confusing to follow at times. Also, throw in a story of closure needed between Hawke's character and his former fling and you've got what could be a real mess. Instead, Hicks is able to keep our interest despite all of this and overall he made a pretty good movie.