Il mare e l'amore

A wonderful film to watch with astonishing scenes and talented actors, such as Misa Shimizu and Nagiko Tono. After 15 minutes of watching, your eyes get locked on the screen and you do nothing but breathing in the atmosphere of the film waiting what the destiny will bring to the characters. This film makes you leave your position as a standard audience, it takes you in, it makes you a part of the story... Costumes and settings are brilliant; especially the district of the okiyas is skillfully built. It is definitely not very Akira Kurosawa, however it still gets a lot from the master, especially the stylistic story telling tells us we're in a distinguished land of cinema which is quite far from hollywoodish flamboyance.

This has become one of my all time favorite films. The cinematography is beautiful; it has an interesting plot; I like the characters. I am not crazy about some of Akira Kurosawa's samurai flicks (he wrote this movie) but I adore this film. This is probably my favorite Japanese film. I highly recommend it. I don't think you have to know anything about Japanese culture either. I heard that one criticism of Kurosawa's works is that he doesn't have many roles for women and tends to focus on men. This film really shows his ability to write about women and create wonderful women characters. But the great thing is that it isn't just character development. There is a good plot also. Everyone should see this film

My boyfriend and I both enjoyed this film very much. The viewer is swept away from modern life into old Japan, while at the same time exposed to very current themes. The characters are realistic and detailed; it has an unpredictable ending and story, which is very refreshing. The story is made up of mini-plots within the life of several geisha living together in a poor city district. I highly recommend this movie to anyone who is interested in a realistic romance or life in old Japan.

Finally, after 2 years, my Japanese roommate hunted down this DVD.

This was the screenplay Kurosawa was working on when he died. While it isn't on the grand scale of some of the master's works, and it was directed by one of his disciples, it is a precious gem-burnished and gleaming as you inspect it from all angles. What a deft touch making the lives of prostitutes so compelling, and in the final scene, even heroic. The featurette with the DVD shows how Kurosawa was enamored with the "chic" of old Edo. It goes a long way to explaining the loving look of the film. Not to mention, the opening music theme is haunting and entrancing.

The simple story of a timeless truth. A lovely Cinderella-type story. I highly reccomend watching this film with good friends and a bottle of wine. This is a quaint story about a brothel girl in constant throes of unrequetted love from her clients. This happens over and over until the climatic ending of the movie where she is trapped in the brothel by a deadly flood. I saw this movie in my Japanese class. That was the only reason I didn't let myself cry. You will really love this movie.