AT THE CINEMA An imperfect paradise
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This is a digitised version of an article from The Cayman Compass's print archive. Occasionally, the digitisation process introduces transcription errors, or other problems.
See the article in its original context from July 1991.
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Although American citizens (indeed some had never even been to Japan), Japanese immigrants were thrown into refugee camps and treated like criminals because of their ancestry.
Come See The Paradise is a touching and heartfelt story about a second-generation Japanese immigrant family in America at the start of World War II. Dennis Quaid (the star of the movie Innerspace) plays Jack McGurn, who moves to Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, in 1936 and finds a job working the projectors in a cinema run by a Japanese family.
He is fired when he falls in love with Lily (portrayed by Tamlyn Tomita), his employer's eldest daughter. Lily's parents had arranged for her to marry a much older, rich Japanese man and are not happy when she decides to spend her life with an American. Lily and Jack escape to Seattle, Washington and get married. Soon they have a daughter and their life is blissful. In 1941 Pearl Harbour is bombed by the Japanese and Lily's father, along with many other Japanese immigrants, is arrested by the FBI for suspicion of being potentially dangerous and disloyal to the US. The family is moved to a refugee camp while Jack is drafted into the army.
The hardship suffered by the Japanese immigrants is shown in horrifying detail. The uncertainty as they are taken from their homes simply because of their origin; the difficulties that occur as American and Japanese are brought together and then forced apart; the sadness as the immigrants begin to lose hope of their lives ever returning to normal.
Come See The Paradise is an full of insight tale that gives its audience an understanding of what it was like for the immigrants who were shunned from the one place they called home.
Come See The Paradise, rated R, will be playing in Cinema II next week and Class Action, also rated R, will be showing in Cinema I. categories of reggae music being put on each night.
This year's theme is "Uniting the World Through Music" and the featured performers are truly cosmopolitan. They range from South Africa's Lucky Dube, to Martinique's Kasav, Spice and Sygnacha from Barbados, P. J. from Japan, Colin Lucas and Denyse Plummer from Trinidad, Doug E. Fresh, the rapper from the United States, to Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers, Yellowman, Shabba Ranks and Ninja Man from Jamaica.
Reggae Sunsplash opens with Reggae Beach Party at Cornwall Beach, Montego Bay.
The performances will feature the island's best disc jockeys, a fashion show and such artistes as Pancho, Hindu, Sister Nancy, Michigan and Smiley, Sugar D and Orville Wood.
Tuesday was Dance Hall Night, an offering of the exciting rhythms of soca and calypso from the very best of the Caribbean.
Performing were Vision from Antigua, Sygnacha from Barbados, Denyse Plummer and Colin Lucas from Trinidad, and Morvin Brooks from Jamaica. World Beat Night, Wednesday, put on stage such international stars as P. J. from Japan, Gregory Isaacs, Lasana Bandele, Lucky Dube, Native and Spice & Co.
Usually the night for the sell-out crowd is Thursday, Dance Hall Night, a showdown of Jamaica's dance hall dons at their best. On stage Pancho, Hindu, Lovindeer, Ninja Man, Riddim Kings and Tiger, among others wowed the audience.
Tonight is Singers' Night with Chevelle Franklin, Cocoa Tea, Bloodfire Posse, Sanchez, John Holt, Beres Hammond and Freddie McGreggor, taking top billing. On Saturday, International Night, Jamaica's musical ambassadors come home to pay a special tribute to Bob Marley who did much to popularise reggae music in the worldwide concert tours he made before he died from cancer 10 years ago.
Star performers will include Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers, four of Bob Marley's children, Carlene Davis, Andres Tosh, Julian Marley, Dennis Brown, Shinehead and the I-Threes.
Some hotels offered special packages to Jamaicans attending Reggae Sunsplash; some tour operators provided a special service from Kingston to the Bob Marley Entertainment Centre.
Sunsplash-bound tourists came in from North America, Europe (especially England and Germany), Africa and even the Far East.
Reggae Sunsplash performances will be filmed by MTV, the U.S.-based cable television company, and will be attended by executives of such record companies as CBS and Sony.
Sunsplash which has the endorsement of the Jamaica Tourist Board, is a showcase of not only of its mucic, but of its arts and crafts and an introduction to Jamaica as a tourist destination.
