I never read the book here, so I didn't know what I was in for when I stumbled upon the 2019 movie "The Garden of Evening Mists" here in 2022. I saw that the movie had Julian Sands on the cast list, and that was all I needed to know, as he is one of my favorite actors.
The storyline in "The Garden of Evening Mists", as written by author Twan Eng Tan and then made for the screen by writer Richard Smith, definitely was a beautiful and heartfelt story. It is difficult not to get swept away by the storytelling here and investing emotions into the characters and situations portrayed in the movie, especially since it is all so very realistic and down to Earth.
Director Tom Lin managed to put the script into a beautiful visual movie on the screen, one that I think will have a wide appeal to a broad audience. Because there is something for just about anyone to take away from a movie such as "The Garden of Evening Mists".
The movie jumps between Cantonese, English and Japanese language, but does so very nicely. And having these natural languages in the situations appropriate adds so much realism to the movie. And the movie also jumps between the past and present, letting the audience follow the characters in different times. This was also done very nicely, and brought lots of layers to the movie as well.
Something that definitely carried the movie a great long way was the cast ensemble. The movie has some pretty amazing names on the cast list, with the likes of Angelica Lee, Sylvia Chang, Hiroshi Abe, Julian Sands and John Hannah. It was good performances from the cast ensemble, and they brought the characters and story to life in a very enjoyable manner.
"The Garden of Evening Mists" was a pleasant surprise of a movie, one that provided me with genuine entertainment. However, I think the pacing of the narrative might throw off some viewers, as it is a somewhat slow paced narrative.
My rating of "The Garden of Evening Mists" lands on a six out of ten stars.
