Snow Falling on Cedars is a 1999 American legal drama film directed by Scott Hicks,[2] and starring Ethan Hawke, James Cromwell, Max von Sydow, Youki Kudoh, Rick Yune, Richard Jenkins, James Rebhorn, and Sam Shepard.

[4][5] Set on the fictional San Piedro Island in the northern Puget Sound region of the Washington state coast in 1950, the plot revolves around the murder case of Kabuo Miyamoto, a Japanese American accused of killing Carl Heine, a White fisherman.

This stance is not without irony, as Kabuo, a decorated war veteran of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, experienced prejudice because of his ancestry following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

However, before the last payment was made, war erupted between the U.S. and Japan, and all islanders of Japanese ancestry were forced to relocate to internment camps.

When Ole suffered a stroke and decided to sell the farm, he was approached by Carl Jr., hours before Kabuo arrived, to try to buy the land back.

Several scenes were filmed in Greenwood, where a lot of the older extras were Japanese-Canadians who were interned during World War II.

[6] Though portraying an island town, Greenwood is actually 275 miles from the coast, confusing tourists who read "Harbor" and "Ocean" signs placed there by the production.

"[2] Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "While there are things to like about this film, the poetic realism of [Robert] Richardson’s cinematography and Jeannine Oppewall’s production design high among them, 'Cedars' has to fight to hold our attention and it doesn’t always succeed.

Edward Guthmann of the SF Chronicle wrote, "'Cedars' never brings the viewer inside the Japanese American experience -- even though its primary aim is to strip the facade off anti-Asian bias and make a plea for racial tolerance".