Omoiyari: A Song Film by Kishi Bashi
2022
Action / Documentary / History / Music

Omoiyari: A Song Film by Kishi Bashi
2022
Action / Documentary / History / Music
Plot summary
Violinist and songwriter Kishi Bashi travels on a musical journey to understand WWII era Japanese Incarceration, assimilation, and what it means to be a minority in America today.
Director
Top cast
Tech specs
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SO TIMELY! SO NEEDED!
"They just grabbed all of us"
After Pearl Harbor, came Heart Mountain.
The forced internment of 120,000 Japanese Americans -- "viewed as the enemy" -- transpired in such remote locales as the barley field-surrounded Wyoming butte.
Japanese-American violinist Kishi Bashi takes a trip out West to explore this shadowy chapter of our history, promulgated by FDR after the infamous attack of Dec. 7, 1941.
Kishi presents interesting research, illustrating his tale with original music. He shines while performing on his own, or with others -- most stunningly with a Taiko drum line.
The documentary falters toward its conclusion, when Kishi compares the unfairly interned Japanese Americans with latter-day migrants detained by ICE on the US southern border.
I caught this film at the annual convention of the American Psychological Association in Seattle, and I'm glad I did. Its subject deserves more attention.