Miss Hokusai

It's 1814 Edo, Japan. Tetsuzo is a famous painter. He lives with his daughter O-Ei. She also paints but he often critiques her work harshly. Zenjiro is a hanger-on, a former samurai who turned to painting. O-Ei hates Zenjiro's inferior work and ridicules him as Zen Zero. She often visits her blind half-sister O-Nao who lives with her mother and Tetsuzo rarely visits due to his aversion of the sick.

This evokes a time and place. It paints two great characters. The plot is episodic in nature and I would like more in terms of plot development. I love the woman haunted by O-Ei's painting. There are great bits of a story. I don't know if O-Ei's character development is enough. I am intrigued by her visit to the brothel but it comes to nothing. In the end, she marries but it's left to a postscript text. The script needs a plot development rewrite. It paints a beautiful picture but the picture doesn't really move. Does she become a great artist? Does she find true love? Does sex release her artistry? Is she gay? Does death give her art new depths? There are so many questions but this movie is reluctant to answer them.