''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 American ethnic communities during the 20th century; but, according to the 2000 census, they have declined in number to constitute the sixth largest Asi ...

filmmaker

Rea Tajiri Rea Tajiri is a Japanese American video artist, filmmaker and screenwriter, known for her personal essay film '' History and Memory: For Akiko and Takashige'' (1991). Early life Tajiri was born in 1958 in Chicago, Illinois. Tajiri's father, Vin ...

and co-written by Tajiri and

Japanese Canadian are Canadian citizens of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Canadians are mostly concentrated in Western Canada, especially in the province of British Columbia, which hosts the largest Japanese community in the country with the majority of them living ...

author

Kerri Sakamoto Kerri Sakamoto (born 1960 in Toronto) is a Canadian novelist. Her novels commonly deal with the experience of Japanese Canadians. Sakamoto's debut novel, ''The Electrical Field'' (1998), won the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book. It ...

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 ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

, 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 improv comedian. She is known for her many guest appearances on sitcoms such as ''According to Jim'', ''Half and Half'', ''8 Simple Rules'', ''Curb Your Enthusiasm'' and ''How I Me ...

as Irene Kawai *

James Sie James Sie is an American actor and author. He was the voice of an animated Jackie Chan and several other characters in '' Jackie Chan Adventures'', Master Monkey in '' Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness'', taking over for Chan, and Eddy Ra ...

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. T ...

as Mark *

Takayo Fischer Takayo Fischer (née Tsubouchi; born November 25, 1932) is an American stage, film and television actress, as well as voice actor, voice-over actress. Personal life Fischer was born in Hardwick, California, the youngest of four daughters of ''Iss ...

as Takayo * Peter Yoshida as Bill

Production

Filmmaker

, 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 (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, 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 CPB may refer to: Companies * Campbell Soup Company, an American producer of canned soups and related products * Campbell Brothers, an Australian laboratory and manufacturing company * Crispin Porter + Bogusky, an advertising agency * Corporate ...

, 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 seri ...

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 March in the San Francisco Bay Area in the United States as the nation’s largest showcase for new Asian American and Asia ...

and was an Official Selection to the

Venice Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival he ...

. 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, episod ...

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'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' 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 ...

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