This 'Pastime' Triumphs on
Both Sides of the Fence
Desmond Nakano's 'American Pastime' is more than a movie about baseball.
Lyle Nomura's pitches whiz through the air and land in the catcher's glove, but the umpire's strike zone is a little biased. In an impromptu game between Japanese American prisoners and their white guards on the baseball field behind barbwire, there are divisions already drawn in the sand.
After arguing about the unfair calls, one guard scornfully asks why the perceived alien enemies of World War II think they know the all-American sport.
"It's not about baseball," the other responds.
And despite the inferences of its title, Desmond Nakano's "American Pastime" isn't just a sports movie about keeping score while rooting for the underdogs rounding the bases. It's about you and hundreds of thousands of other JAs reading this newspaper since the day the government took away your innocence.
Many documentaries and fictional films have been made about the internment - some good, many bad and almost all cursed by the disease called "low budget" - but then there's "American Pastime," a film that somehow discovers a fresh perspective on historical events that still run in our community's collective unconscious like a broken record.
Stark Beauty, Personal Stories and Some Change-ups
Recreating the past can be tricky - just one too many loud crescendos of music or emotional outbursts can steer a historically based movie into the realms of a made-for-television Hallmark movie. "Pastime" walks the line perfectly.
Yes, there are requisite montages of thorny barbwire piercing the eternally blue Utah sky and the imposing guard tower rising out of the sand, but there are also moments of artistic genius that rival the still images of Ansel Adams - a sweeping shot of the fractures in the parched land and dust gently covering Lyle's (Aaron Yoo) young face.
The heart of "Pastime" is the people - a community of many uncommon friends including a ukulele-playing Hawaiian and a loose-tongue Issei with a penchant for gambling and making moonshine. At center is the Nomura family, led by Kaz (Masatoshi Nakamura, a famous Japanese singer and actor, in a powerhouse American debut) and Emi (Judy Ongg), the Issei parents of teenagers Lyle and Lane (Leonardo Nam) who are forced to abandon their home and flower shop business to live in the co-ed barracks of Topaz.
Slowly, the injustice begins to create splinters in the Nomura family. Lane and Lyle, who are named after Desmond's real life late father and uncle, adjust to their incarceration differently. Lane volunteers for the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and Lyle, who lost a college baseball scholarship because of his incarceration, finds solace in drinking and, of course, baseball.
It's not just a game - baseball for the internees was a way of life and a much-needed diversion from reality. The Nomura family story is so painfully intimate and powerful, it seems to be hewed out of the ribs of writer/director Desmond and Associate Producer Kerry Yo Nakagawa, who is also the author of "Through a Diamond: 100 Years of Japanese American Baseball" and founder of the "Nisei Baseball Research Project."
Delving Into the Other Side of the Fence
But what makes "Pastime" outstanding is its exploration of the effects of the war on all Americans, including those on the other side of the fence.
Desmond skillfully avoids the pratfalls of overarching evil-white-people stereotypes (although there are a couple of bad eggs) with Billy Burrell (Gary Cole), an embittered Topaz guard and former major league prospect. Like Kaz, Billy is brimming with silent frustration over unrealized dreams and irreversible circumstances.
All around him, the young men - including his own son - are killed in battle in far-off lands and in one scene, he angrily tosses a baseball and confesses to feeling like a babysitter at Topaz. His emotions always bubble at the surface ready to explode into rage especially when he discovers his daughter (Sarah Drew) has fallen in love with Lyle - a sweet love story that casts the Asian American male as a romantic lead.
Even for those who lived through the events recreated onscreen, "Pastime" is a powerful love letter to the Nikkei community and a can't-miss.
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