Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

WillSushyMedia This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

WILLIAM FLANIGAN Viewed on DVD. Mail-order brides Hawaiian style. Judging from the boat load (make that multiple boat loads) of contributors listed in the end credit crawl, this was a pioneering crowd-sourced film. It ends prematurely (a sugar-cane laborer uprising was being planned), perhaps, when the money ran out? Acting, direction, and cinematography are fine. Shot on location with plenty of that distinctively red Hawaiian soil on display plus a waterfall (or two) cascading down the Pali. A major dramatic event involving the burning of the fields is poorly executed and patently fake. The lead actress seems to be miscast given her real/projected fragility compared to the harsh demands of a field hand (taking in washing aside). Nonetheless, this is a pleasant and engaging little film even though it follows the well trodden path of making the best of an unpleasant situation forced upon the protagonist plus a trace of the "Stockholm syndrome." WILLIAM FLANIGAN, PhD.

ad383 Picture Bride paints a realistic and moving portrait of what it must have been like for Japanese men brought to Hawaii at the turn of the 19th Century to work in the sugar cane fields. Most came planning to return to their homeland, but few were ever able to do so. Equally movingly portrayed is the fate of Japanese women, some as young as fifteen or sixteen, who were sent as promised brides to men they knew only through photographs that often were 10 or 15-years out of date, or were of some other younger man. They too worked long hard hours in the fields, while fighting homesickness and to preserve their dignity.Director Hatta's portrayal of one picture bride's courage and perseverance struggling to survive in a strange land and alien society under great physical duress, is, ultimately, inspirational and uplifting--a story of moral and cultural survival. There is a grandness and magnificence of sweep of character and landscape in Picture Bride that captures the alluring beauty as well as violent harshness of colonial Hawaii. This is a film that is emotionally, intellectually and artistically rewarding.

keala The first time I saw PICTURE BRIDE, I felt a bit let down, feeling the story was a bit commonplace. Also, being from Hawaii, I felt the petty impulse to begrudge the few (very few) slightly misleading geographical and historical moments in the film. Now, five years later, I like the movie better. Its cinematography is beautiful, and if the plot is sometimes predictable, it's still handled sensitively. The film leaves you with a strong sense of a time and setting that no longer exists.

airb For a mature man, to admit that he shed a tear over this film is a mature response, to a mature film.If one need admit more then perhaps one could say that, "Life" can never be the same, after viewing such advent for it has moved us to the next level.