Peter Yoshida Movies

In this drama about young Asian-Americans struggling for a sense of culture and identity, Irene (Suzy Nakamura) is a Japanese-American teenager growing up in the early 1970s. Her parents, who spent much of World War II in a California internment camp (though they refuse to discuss their experiences there), have decided to divorce, which sends Irene, already going through a difficult emotional period, into a tailspin. Unhappy at home, Irene and her boyfriend Luke (James Sie) decide to hit the road for San Francisco; before leaving, Irene symbolically burns her mother's family photographs, an eerie echo of her grandfather's decision, years before, to burn the family's possessions before being taken to the internment camp. Irene and Luke travel with another couple, political activists Mark and Aura; unknown to the others, radical Mark has the makings for several bombs in his bags. The two couples bicker until Irene and Luke split off on their own in search of the remains of the camp where Irene's family was incarcerated. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

This outrageous sleazefest released by exploitation maven William Mishkin may be the least politically correct film ever seen in American theaters. Thug William Sanderson (of TV's Newhart) and two of his flunkies shoot a number of people and go on the lam to upstate New York. They hide out at the home of a black minister and his family, whom they torture, rape, and intimidate for much of the film. Sanderson's dialogue is amazingly racist, and one wonders if it caused any riots at the inner-city grindhouses where this film played. Any examples would be unprintable, and this is definitely not a film for sensitive viewers. Not only does Sanderson manage to shock with epithets, but he makes the minister dance a jig and refers to his elderly mother as "Aunt Jemima." If that wasn't enough, a small white boy has his head beaten to a pulp with a stone in a rather graphic scene cut from some prints. Director Robert A. Endelson also includes a gang rape and some anti-Hispanic sentiment. This film is for extreme tastes only, though some may find the sheer exuberance of Sanderson's performance good for a few laughs. Writer Straw Weisman also penned the Troma comedy When Nature Calls before directing Dead Mate. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi