Meu Japão Brasileiro (1964)

In an agricultural community in Brazil, the farmers, who are mostly of Japanese descent, are explored by a monopolistic middleman, who is also the local police chief. The owner of a boarding house tries to mobilize the community so as to start an agricultural cooperative which would set them free from the middleman.

*spoilers below*
There are interesting aspects to this film's plot. It starts out as a drama about poor landowners who are exploited by a greedy tradesman, who is the villain of the film. The fact that the latter is also a police chief makes the film also a denunciation of power abuse. Later in the film, the racial question goes to the forefront of the plot. The villain frames a Japanese man in a murder attempt so as to instill racial hatred in the non-Japanese people. And the villain's younger son marries a Japanese woman -- a further complication. So, the film is not completely without merit. On the other hand, it is not an exceedingly well made film, and the middle section flirts with farce in a way which is in complete dissonance with the gravity established in the beginning of the film. Also, there are a few plot points which are plainly absurd. The villain kidnaps the hero's wife and claims she was killed in a road accident. The motive for such behavior is obscure, to say the least. How he initially gets away with not showing the body is another implausibility. Then, after the hero finds his wife alive, his decision to hide her from view is also incomprehensible on any grounds other than plot convenience.

Rating: 31