''Strawberry Fields'' is a 1997 independent feature film directed by

Japanese American are Americans of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Americans were among the three largest Asian Americans, Asian American ethnic communities during the 20th century; but, according to the 2000 United States census, 2000 census, they have declined in ...

filmmaker Rea Tajiri and co-written by Tajiri and

Japanese Canadian are Canadians, Canadian citizens of Japanese people, Japanese ancestry. Japanese Canadians are mostly concentrated in Western Canada, especially in the province of Japanese Canadians in British Columbia, British Columbia, which hosts the largest ...

author Kerri Sakamoto.

Plot

The story of the film centers on Irene Kawai, a

teenager in Chicago in the 1970s who is haunted by a photo of her grandfather she never knew standing by a barracks in a World War II internment camp for Japanese Americans. Prompted by visits from the ghost of ''Terri'', her dead baby sister, Irene journeys with her boyfriend Luke on a road trip to

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

, where the Poston War Relocation Center once stood, and where the photo of her grandfather was taken.

Main cast

Suzy Nakamura Suzy Nakamura (born December 2, 1968) is an American actress and Improvisational theatre, improv comedian. She is known for her many guest appearances on sitcoms such as ''According to Jim'', ''Half & Half (TV series), Half and Half'', ''8 Simpl ...

as Irene Kawai *

James Sie James Sie (born December 18, 1962) is an American actor and author. He is best known as a voice double for Jackie Chan, having voiced an animated Chan and several other characters in '' Jackie Chan Adventures''. He is also known for his recurri ...

as Luke * Heather Yoshimura as Terri * Marilyn Tokuda as Alice * Reiko Mathieu as Aura *

Chris Tashima Christopher Inadomi Tashima (born March 24, 1960) is a Japanese American actor and director. He is co-founder of the entertainment company Cedar Grove Productions and Artistic Director of its Asian American theatre company, Cedar Grove OnStage. ...

as Mark *

Takayo Fischer Takayo Fischer (née Tsubouchi; born 1932) is an American stage, film and television actress, as well as voice-over actress. Personal life Fischer is the youngest of four daughters of Japanese immigrants Chukuro, a farm laborer, and Kinko Tsubo ...

as Takayo * Peter Yoshida as Bill

Production

Filmmaker Rea Tajiri, whose own grandparents and parents were interned, was inspired to make the project because of the lack of films that explored the effects of internment on internees' children.

“I felt at the time I began the project that there hadn’t been any films made that looked at the effect the internment had on the children of internees,” said the New York City-based filmmaker...“What was that moment like when you discovered your family was interned and how does that affect you? How does that make you look at your family after that point?”

''Strawberry Fields'' was filmed in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, Illinois, and in California. The film was completed in 1997, a process that took four years. It took another two years to get commercially released. The film received funding from CPB, NEA and

ITVS ITVS (Independent Television Service) is a service in the United States which funds and presents documentaries on public television through distribution by PBS and American Public Television, new media projects on the Internet, and the weekly ...

Release

It premiered at the

San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival CAAMFest, known prior to 2013 as the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival (SFIAAFF), is presented every May (Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month) in the San Francisco Bay Area in the United States as the nation's ...

and was an Official Selection to the

Venice Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival (, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival held in Venice, Italy. It is the world's oldest film festival and one of the ...

. It also screened at the

Los Angeles Film Festival The LA Film Festival was an annual film festival that was held in Los Angeles, California, and usually took place in June. It showcased independent, international, feature, documentary and short films, as well as web series, music videos, episodi ...

and won the Grand Prix at the Fukuoka Asian Film Festival. It was released on VHS and DVD by Vanguard Cinema.

Reception

Critic Kevin Thomas of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' called the film "very impressive...a tough-minded, idiosyncratic

coming-of-age Coming of age is a young person's transition from being a child to being an adult. The specific age at which this transition takes place varies between societies, as does the nature of the change. It can be a simple legal convention or can b ...

story". ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' was more critical, citing the film's "superficially sketched characters" and "hackneyed dialogue".

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Strawberry Fields (1997 Film) 1997 films Films about Japanese Americans Films about the internment of Japanese Americans 1990s ghost films Films set in Poston, Arizona Films set in Chicago Films set in the 1970s Films set in Arizona American independent films 1997 independent films Asian-American drama films 1990s English-language films 1990s American films English-language independent films