Picture Bride and Kike Like Me (possible spoilers)

I watched 2 movies today that I've had on the DVR for awhile but just couldn't seem to get in the right mood to watch them. One of them I loved, the other one .... well ....

Picture Bride was amazing. I am madly in love with many things Japan. I think their language is gorgeous and their culture is fascinating. They are so grounded and yet so mystical at the same time.

This was my second introduction to the relationship of Japan and Hawaii (Hula Girls being the first - which i highly recommend as well) and it's definitely a relationship I'd like to read more about. Especially with the dichotomy of the fact that Japan blew up Hawaii in 1941)

Anyway, Picture Bride came out in 1994 and it's focus is a young Japanese city girl who falls in love with a Japanese man via letters and a picture and moves to Hawaii to marry him. Think arranged marriage meets mail order bride I guess. It deals with her struggles with this man who isn't everything she thought he would be and her struggle with the difference in culture and working (she is from the city and when she gets to Hawaii she's expected to work in the Sugar Cane fields - hard "country" work)

it really was an amazing movie and I had small tears in my eyes at the end. I loved the development of the characters in relation to each other as well as themselves. And even tho most of it is shot in the sugar cane fields, you just can't disguise the beauty of Hawaii. I really hope to go there someday. And the tiny sprinkling of spirituality and mysticism was just enough to make you think.

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Kike Like Me was completely different. It was about a young man's journey to see what it's like being jewish today. At least that's what the info synopsis said on the DVR.

Jamie Kastner is the filmmaker and the main character in this short 1 hour documentary. It starts off kinda neat. He claims the premise of the movie is based on Gregory Peck's movie "Gentleman's Agreement" from 1947 (which I've never seen but now I want to) in which Peck is a journalist who proclaims himself as Jewish in order to write a story about Anti-Semitism.

He starts out going to a Hasidic Jewish community in NYC where he's welcomed with open arms into their shul. from there he travels all over - London, Jerusalem, Paris, Berlin, Krakow and finally Auschwitz - all the while just feeling people out about how they feel about Jews and basically showing how anti-semitism is alive and well and abundant even among people who say they're tolerant.

But somewhere along the way the message gets confuzzled. He claims that it's based on how Peck claimed he was Jewish when anyone asked, but when he's asked by people whether he's Jewish, he responds with "Why do you want to know?" (Except when asked by the Hasidic Jews in the beginning - them he willingly states that he's Jewish with no defensive "why do you care?" attitude)

I don't want to ruin it for anyone who wants to see this documentary. And altho I don't give it a ringing endorsement, there are parts of it that are worth seeing.

Like the interaction he has with Pat Buchannon when he tries to interview him regarding his book and his feelings on Neo-Conservatives and the Jews.

Or the chat he has with a woman in London who states that her friends are all very anti-Israel and have told her "just because you had that holocaust doesn't give you the right to go in and kill all those poor Palistinians. It was 60 years ago. get over it"

It completely falls apart when he visits Krakow and then Auschwitz tho.

I can understand his frustration in Krakow. They're making a living on tourists coming to see the "jewish experience" there (courtesy of Schindler's List). They have Jewish restaurants (not actually run or owned by Jews) that serve Jewish food (not made by Jewish chefs) who have Klezmer trios serenading patrons with traditional jewish song (none of the musicians whom are Jewish).

But at Auschwitz he just loses it. He's inappropriate and condescending (asking whether they have t-shirts at a book store on the premises) and refuses to even check out the barracks or the gas chambers, stating that he doesn't need to go there and Auschwitz should just be bombed.

As someone who has visited a Holocaust museum (a very powerful one in Richmond, VA that brought me to tears) there is an absolute NEED to have a place like Auschwitz preserved for us and future generations. So that history is made more real and allows us to connect on a more personal level. It's one thing to read about those atrocities, but quite another to walk into the actual room that Anne Frank hid in as she tried to save her life. Or strolling the actual grounds that people walked on their way to their deaths. I can't imagine the power that would hold. But I do know that it's needed.

Not to convince those that don't believe such things happened. They'll never come out of their ignorant fog and actually see the truth. But for people who care and who can hopefully effect change so that such things don't happen again.

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So to sum up: Picture Bride - amazing. Kike like Me - had potential but ended up with me just wanting to slap the filmmaker in the face. But both are still worthwhile in their own ways.