I'll Remember April

Interesting indie that barely got released anywhere (and probably was slapped crudely onto disc to capitalize on the sudden fame of one of it's juvenile players...despite being the focus of cover art and billing Haley Joel Osment has a supporting role...and looks to be a bit younger and a LOT blonder than he was in "The Sixth Sense" and he is NOT prominently featured here.).

Well meaning and at times moving depiction of broken lives of about to be interred American born Japanese descended citizens is rather uncomfortably with far fetched fantasy of 4 boys becoming best buddies with a wounded and stranded Japanese sailor. Some very good work from a surprisingly strong cast hints that this could have been a quite interesting film with a better detailed script and a much bigger budget...(the film as it stands seems about four fifths finished with a temp track score and a very strangely shot ending).

If you do pick it up on disc as a curio (thank you for offering it DAEDELUS BOOKS!) I would strongly advise NOT watching the trailer before seeing the film...It gives away about ninety per cent of the plot!

I bought I'll Remember April on DVD off Amazon without ever seeing it or talking to anyone who had! It was a big risk but I was very pleasently surprised by this movie! The acting was wonderful, Trevor Morgan really did a wonderful job and was very believable! A really good movie to watch as a family, it has funny moments, sad moments and a very good moral lesson! It can be enjoyed by kids as young as 5 and adults as old as 100!

Film brings to life a very bad point in our history, the internment of Americans of Japanese descent. Excellent performances by all 4 kids also showed that not all soldiers on the enemy side were monsters. It could have used a *LITTLE* balance (e.g. references to the atrocities being committed that caused the sentiment that the film shows), but the point made in the film was quite valid regardless. Recommended.

Being a Japanese-American myself, I must say that PRACTICALLY every comment on here is pointless or doesn't do this film justice. Especially, the one from the perv talking about having sex with and under-aged boy!!! ERASE THAT COMMENT! I cannot believe IMDb even posted such a comment! And who cares about the details, like the military truck driving around. This is not meant to be a historically accurate movie... it's the story and message that's important.

The movie was so touching and showed how, inspite of what was going on, not all people are bad because they're associated with a certain people. This is a message we can especially take into consideration now. It also showed the beautiful innocence of children and how they might be just as quick to judge, which is only because it's a trait learned from adults, but they let doing the right thing matter more. Something we as adults can learn a lesson from. There was a particularly sad portion of the story dealing with the internment camps. It brought the situation into a whole new light and showed how, I'm sure, it really was for some... People you grew up with your whole life, who were born and raised in America forced to leave their homes, friends, and jobs. What the Japanese did was wrong, yes. But the Americans bombed whole cities full of innocents with aftermath that killed for years. Plus, they stole the freedom of their own, in their own country, just because they were of Japanese descent. It's a heart-wrenching piece of history told in a story that anyone can relate to, not just those who were in the military. Highly recommended. 9 out of 10 only because the flow or editing of events was a little choppy.

I really enjoyed the film. I thought the actors were very believable and I laughed and cried with them as the story unfolded. I found it a good vehicle to begin a discussion with my grandchildren of the history of one of the most shameful things our country had done in our treatment of the Japanese during this time period. I wish the film had been longer. There were times that the continuity was missing and I had to wonder how we got to the current point. Since I have the video, I replayed some scenes.