Forgive - Don't Forget

A nice looking film that looks more-or-less professional and feels like it was lovingly put together, albeit without much originality. It's hard to argue against the general stated premise: that doing anything to bring cultures together -- no matter how big or small -- is worth doing. I would say, however, that it depends on how you do it and why.

When considered as a whole, this project seems more exploitative than charitable. Perhaps I am old fashioned, but when you say you are doing something philanthropic but put yourself at the center of it, it ceases to be a good act and becomes self-promotion (and that is true whether you are Bill Gates, Jeffrey Epstein, the egregious David Rubenstein, or the creatives in question). It would have been laudable if the filmmakers had simply returned the sword to its owner without trying to tell the world about it and make themselves heroes and personalities.

I assume the filmmakers would answer that critique by saying that the story is so important that they couldn't keep it to themselves. To which I would answer 1. probably not. And 2. if you believed that and it was really your pure motivation, why is the film filled with excessive footage of the creators, including just hanging out at their computers making bungling attempts?

One of the more annoying aspects of this film is its self-importance. It is loaded with direct statements and implications that returning a single, fairly commonplace, sword from their grandparent's attic is going to make the world a better place. It is pretty pretentious and silly stuff. The worst moment is when they score an interview with a Princeton Japanese studies professor. I felt really bad for the professor, who got used. The filmmakers play up the interview with sweeping shots of the Princeton campus to give their project the illusion of ultimate prestige and legitimacy. The superfluous shots of the campus and the professor walking through it serve no other purpose since the school, the campus, and the professor have nothing to do with the story. They then obviously feed the professor their line about their small act having world implications. Thanks to the misuse of the magic of filmmaking, you don't get to hear what they are saying to the professor. But you do get to hear him repeating their lines politely as if he has himself come up with them. In the most cringe-worthy seconds of the film, they then add their own post-interview voice over disowning the very idea they have just planted in an Ivy League professor's mouth. That's not just awful, it's fraudulent.

The above is not an isolated incident. They frequently dramatize and falsify their work. In one scene, the filmmaker asks his Japanese grandma, who lives near him, to translate the name on their sword. Not exactly a sterling example of detective work ... "hey grandma, can you come here for a second and translate this?" The filmmakers present this as a breathless Sherlock Holmes moment. As if it came after a long stretch of tough detective work. Pretty sad.

All in all, this feels like filmmakers looking for any premise for a documentary. They found a tiny kernal and blew it up beyond all proportion. In reality, this seems like it wouldn't even be worthy of a spot in the local news.

Maybe for their follow up, they can find someone who had a WWII grandpa who brought home some Nazi execution equipment? They can try to find the family of a Nazi who once used it and return that, too...for the sake of world peace. Or rather for their own sake. Exploiting history and other cultures isn't going to save the world. But it might get a filmmaker 15 minutes of attention.

Excellent documentary from a first time film maker. Bravo!

The reviewers Expo22 and the ignorant bluewatercolor-39303 saw nothing but negativity from this extremely kind gesture. Its people like them that make it so hard to make life so easy. And by the way bluewatercolor-39303 you greedy think only of money stupid dimwit, the sword had no monetary value attached to it at all; if you had actually had any brainpower to understand what you were watching and listening to, you would have heard that is was 1930's hand forged but not worth anything.

As a documentary it was very amatuer in its unfolding but thats to be expected when you are not in the film and television profession. It could have been put together much much better but that is not really the point at all about this human kindness feature. The only important thing to take away from this film is that one family group had the kindness, the great wish and the heart felt decency to return the stolen property (and it was stolen, make no mistake) to the family it legally belonged to!

One sword that I hope very much will be returned to Japan is one made by the greatest Japanese sword maker ever, Masamune. The sword in question is the famous 'Honjo Masamune'. It was the symbol of the Tokugawa shogunate during almost all of the Edo period (one of Japan's longest and greatest periods of prosperity). Handed down through the family it became 1 of 14 of Tokugawa's swords that were handed over to the Americans at the end of WW2! One, or more, of the officers involved with the sword gathering then stole it/them and it has never been seen again since. It would be a good thing if the family of that officer returned it but, if they sold it to a dealer maybe the dealer will own up! :)

Forgive Don't Forget was a breathe of fresh air to watch. A documentary that showcases real people trying to do the right thing without creating a false sense of drama like a lot of what we see on TV these days. This is a real human interest story, and I highly recommend it to all audiences.

I liked the way this documentary explored and kept a focus on the differing views the Japanese and the Americans' hold regarding teaching/remembering WWII history and their country's role. Maybe it's understandable due to their side losing the war. I believe the quest to find the original owners' family was a worthwhile effort and for that one family, it may have mattered. Yes, this is a real human interest story, along with many historical facts, such as the value and meaning of the sword to pre-WWII generations. I highly recommend.