The Sea Is Watching
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Movie Reviews of The Sea Is Watching
Movie Review: Against the Milky Way
Summary: 4 Stars
"The Sea Is Watching" was written by legendary director Akira Kurosawa. After his death, his screenplay was directed by Kei Kumai who has been working since the 1960s in film. The cinematography is magical. The little red light district community is charmingly filmed, set off from the rest of the world by a bridge, with the Japanese lanterns and the traditional furnishings creating a lovely set. As the storm rages and the house floods, the set transforms into an eerie gothic disaster, only to end with the glorious milky way as the backdrop to the very final act.
In what is her first film (as far as I can tell), Nagiko Tohno plays O-shin, a beautiful romantic fallen on hard times. Like a Japanese Meryl Streep, she sheds tears at the drop of a hat. Her incredible emotional range at going from elation and devotion to despair and grief is breathtaking. Fusanosuke is a young samurai who has killed or wounded another and is fleeing the police. Hidetaka Yoshioka who has acted in at least 15 films since 1971 including Kurosawa's "Rhapsody in August" plays the young warrior that O-Shin disguises & protects. He seems to fall in love with her, even getting her to give up prostitution for a time that leads her to believe he would break the caste barriers and marry her. When he comes back and thoughtlessly announces his engagement to another, it breaks her heart. Ryosuke is another customer for who O-Shin falls. He has had hard luck, being an orphan, and veers from anger to depression. He is played by Masatoshi Yoshioka who was in "Suicide Club" & played Dark Horse with a blond wig in "Pistol Opera." Eventually, he serves as the story's hero, slaying an enemy and saving the day. Misa Shimizu plays Miss Kikuno, a worker in the brothel who assumes command. She has invented a great history for herself as being from a samurai family and urges O-Shin on, eventually at great sacrifice to herself. Shimizu starred in 1997's "The Eel" and 2001's "Warm Water Under a Red Bridge." The actors do a great job as the director tries to bring Kurosawa's vision to fruition. The actors rivet us to screen and the cinematography provides stunning eye candy. Enjoy!
Movie Review: Graceful and Beautiful To Watch
Summary: 4 Stars
This movie is quite a departure from Kurosawa's speciality in the grand epic and heroic. Instead, this movie is intimate and about downtrodden women working as prostitutes during the Edo period. This movie meant to be made by Kurosawa himself and much of the production notes and scripts were done but alas, he passed away. Anyhow, in this DVD offering, there was a behind-the-scene where the Director explained his faithfulness to Kurosawa's vision of the final cut of this movie. Whilst the behind-the-scene was brief, we did see that much research was taken to ensure that the set and costumes were relevant to the period the movie was based. From the fates of O-Shin (young prostitute) and her Madam, their workplace, not only we witnessed the hardship that they went through, but we managed to catch a glimpses of their courage to persevere and hoping for a better future. Those prostitutes wouldn't be who they were if not they were born to poor families. They need to work not for themselves but for their families to sustain their livelihood. Guys that frequented the brothels were either slimeballs or they were well-intended. Despite that this movie was more suitable for TV, like a typical Japanese NHK drama, I enjoyed the cornucopias of colour and sound that graced the brothels when the sun went down, almost mimicking the painting of Lautrec of the Parisian's Moulin Rouge in the 19th century. The ending was akin to the Old Testament where the big storm came to rid of bad elements in the world and thus, the believers got to start their lives afresh again. An open-ending for some but an ending that represented hope for the future. Highly recommended especially for traditional Japanese-philes!Movie Review: An interesting look at 19th Century Japan
Summary: 4 Stars
I checked this DVD out more for my wife than myself. Sice reading "Memoirs of a Geisha," she's had a fascination with geishas and Japan. I've always been fascinated by Japan, although I must admit I am not a big Japanese film buff.In fact, I've only seen one previous Akira Kurosawa film, "The Seven Samurai." "The Sea is Watching" is not actually by Kurosawa, although he wrote the screenplay and did story boards for the film before his death. The director, Kei Kumai, who completed the project, was hand picked by Kurosawa's son. Since I'm not a Kurosawa expert, I can't really comment on how true Kumai is to Kurosawa's spirit.
However, I can say that the film is excellent, a very involving tale focusing on O-Shin, a geisha seeking true love who has a bad habit of thinking she is in love only to learn her suitors feel differently. O-Shin is emotionally shattered when a samurai, who she believes loves her, indicates he is going to marry someone else.
But, she then meets a commoner, Ryosuke, whom she falls in love with. Ryosuke, however, is a troubled man and prospects with him do not look promising as he is apparently bent on taking vengence on someone (literally anyone) for past wrongs he has endured. The film climaxes when a storm strikes and the village O-Shin lives in is flooded and destroyed.
Although at times somewhat a little too detailed and draggy, this is a fascinating look at life in a small 19th century village and a lifestyle (that of the geisha) that has largely faded away in modern times.
Movie Review: Excellent film by a lesser master.
Summary: 4 Stars
The Sea is Watching may never have been filmed by its author, thelate great master of Japanese Cinema Akira Kurosawa, but it fits very, VERY, nicely in a collection of his other films. Kurosawa's films mostly featured men and their world, particularly his early muscular films like Seven Samurai. I think he wrote this film after reflecting on this point. So seldom does the focus of the galaxy of samurai films remain on the jilted-lover, the poor woman left behind. Not only does this film do that, it focuses on the dregs of society - prostitutes. Yet the world of the prositiutes is not stark. It is rich and colorful. Here it is nice to see state-of-the-art production values brought to a Kurosawa story: we can watch one of his stories in crisp color. The basic story line is a theme universal in Kurosawa's films: the struggle for human dignity in an unforgiving world. Nature is also personified and plays a role in the drama - a recurring theme throughout Kurosawa's work.
The movie centers around a young geisha named O-Shin who seems destined for a higher life but is constantly ground into the dirt. Just as she thinks the worst has come, nature plays its part. The sea that watches the prostitures "water trade" and fleeting lives, fittingly has the last say. Director Kei Kumai may not possess Kurosawa's cinematic flair nor feverish genius.
But he does turn in a handsome film worthy to be included in Kurosawa's legacy.
Movie Review: The Sea is Listening, too.
Summary: 4 Stars
What a beautiful picture and a moving story! I haven't seen the recent American adaptation of "Memoirs of a Geisha", and I would certainly choose not to see it after seeing this one. I would be too disappointed. The fact that the "Sea is Watching" was directed by a native of Japan gives the story a lot more interest and credibility.
It gives somewhat a comic insight into a brothel by the Nippon sea at the beginning of the 19th century. Life in such an environment can be cruel and people quite ruthless. Yet, the movie doesn't focus on that: it is instead very compassionate towards the prostitutes, elegant figures imprisonned in brightful kimonos and their rich clients, who are seen here as either fallen angels (the Geisha) or fallen heros (the Samourai). The movie has many extremely funny scenes and dialogues except - of course, towards the end.
As with all Japanese poetry, it is a total delight. Human Life, after all, resembles that of a brothel: a constant struggle, an escape from reality, an imperfect world of games and lies, and an unsuccessful search for love and happiness. And yet, there is hope. Here, the deliverance comes in the form of a typhon. The angry sea finally soars with winds blowing, flooding the streets and sweeping away the brothel's woodhouses, taking away its sins and freeing the Geishas.
Does freedom only comes with death after all?