Movies by Chris Tashima
Under the Blood-Red Sun
December 7, 1941 - TOMIKAZU “TOMI” NAKAJI (Kyler Ki Sakamoto) and his best friend BILLY DAVIS (Kalama Epstein) are playing baseball in a field near their homes in Hawaii when Japan launches a surprise attack on the US at Pearl Harbor. As Tomi looks up at the sky and recognizes the Blood-Red Sun emblem on the fighter planes, he knows that his life has changed forever. Based on actual events, Under the Blood-Red Sun is an unforgettable story of friendship, courage and survival.
Strawberry Fields
After a visit from the ghost of her sister, a rebellious 16 year old Japanese American girl hits the road with her boyfriend in search of a better life. Hooking up with activist friends along the way, she comes to an important realization about her past: that her parents were incarcerated in an internment camp during World War II. She detours her road trip, ditches her boyfriend and drives off into the Arizona desert in a determined search for the truth that will set her free.
Visas and Virtue
Europe, 1940. For thousands of Jews, a Japanese diplomat and his wife defy Tokyo and the Nazis, and offer visas, for life.
Model Minority
Kayla, an underprivileged Japanese American 16 year old, endangers her promising future as an aspiring artist when she becomes involved with a drug dealer.
Overkill
A Tokyo cop is sent to Los Angeles to help an LAPD detective break up a yakuza ring operating in the city.
Day of Independence
Zip, a 17 year-old Nisei (second-generation Japanese American) baseball pitcher, faces the tragic circumstances of the World War II internment of 110,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry. Set in a relocation camp in the summer of 1943, this film chronicles the journey of an American family torn apart by a forced and unjust incarceration, a father's decision that challenges his son to find strength, and ultimately his son's triumph through courage, sacrifice and the All-American game of baseball.
Lil Tokyo Reporter
1935 Los Angeles, community leader Sei Fujii uncovers the corrupt activities of his community's underground mafia. He must choose between saving the face of his deteriorating community and confronting the issues head on through his newspaper. Based on a true story.
Kodama
An fantasy/action short about a SWAT Samurai team entering a spirit world to rescue a lost captain.
Americanese
Long after their breakup, Chinese American Raymond Ding and Amerasian Aurora Crane struggle to let go. Torn apart by mismatched ideals, meddling friends, and the complexities of racial identities, they find other suitable mates but cannot stay away from each other
Go for Broke
During the tumultuous year after the attack on Pearl Harbor, a group of University of Hawaii ROTC students navigate wartime Hawaii and fight discrimination.
Lani Loa: The Passage
A Hawaii cop becomes the suspect in a series of killings after his would-be bride is murdered on their wedding day by a gang of bank robbers, and returns as a ghost, taking vengeance on her killers, the Lono Gang.