A Scene at the Sea

Having recently seen and loved Zatoichi, the Blind Swordsman, I became interested in seeing his other work. So I started with this movie, which had been praised to the sky.

Slow? Measured pacing? Grass grows faster. And why doesn't a contemporary Japanese deaf couple know sign language? This film's emotion is so subtle that white bread seems interesting.

I am a lover of foreign and independent films. But the high praise that this one has received has me stumped. It seems to me that the director has tried too hard to create something unusual.

Incredible from the get-go.

Oh, well, I'll keep trying. I shall now watch Kids Return.

Takeshi Kitano has made his reputation through a string of splendid Yakuza films, whose stylised violence is tempered with humour. All the more of a surprise, then, to come across this early Kitano in a totally different style. The storyline is minimal. A young deaf-mute garbage collector finds a broken surfboard, repairs it and becomes obsessed with surfing. His devoted girlfriend follows him - literally - everywhere, six paces behind him, dutifully folding up his discarded clothes while he is surfing.

Surely you can't make a film with so little action and no dialogue from the main characters! Kitano does, triumphantly. This is a heart-warming film, without being cloying. The relationship between the two central characters is drawn beautifully, using only their eyes and occasional smiles. They hardly ever even touch. But by the end of the film you feel that you know them and your heart goes out to them, in a film with touches of the great Japanese master Ozu. The music complements the film's moods superbly, and augments the atmospheric stillness that pervades this Japanese masterpiece. A must-see movie.

I'm a big fan of Takeshi Kitano's work, and I feel this film is his best. Whilst films like Hana-bi, Kids return, and Sonatine may have all the idiosyncratic traits that have made Takeshi so critically acclaimed, they all rely on extremities to convey their message. In the case of 'Ano natsu, ichiban shizukana umi', the director has excelled himself by retaining all the interesting and original traits of his more graphic films, yet managing to tell a story that is just as deep and provocative, only to a more subtle degree.

The story tells of a young, deaf, disenchanted garbage-collector who one day finds a ruined surf-board lying amidst some rubbish. This inspires the boy to become a great surfer, and with the help of a young deaf girl, he gradually becomes more skillful as time progresses, their love blossoming during the course of the movie.

The camera work is extremely sedate and enveloping, managing to capture the calmness of the sea. The characters do not speak, yet the story never seems to drag at all, with each scene drawing the viewer steadily into this very attractive and insular world that they inhabit. The music, scored by Joe Hisiashi, has a very static, timeless quality to it - a mixture of marimba, synthesisers, piano & string instruments manage to convey the atmosphere of the film exceedingly well, with the main theme song capturing the extremely melancholy feel of the film.

This is one of the most beautiful, haunting films you will ever see.

This film shows that sensitive side of Takeshi Kitano's films. He can really create some beautiful and atmospheric scenes. Sadly, this film didn't have enough to amaze me. I know many people say this is an absolutely beautiful film, and while I cannot deny the beauty of some scenes, it can drag a lot a feel dull at times.

My main issue was with the main characters. It's supposed to be a love story, but I just didn't feel their connection was believable. It was as if we are expected to see them sitting beside each other day after day as some kind of big romantic connection. Now I understand that he is deaf and, while it sometimes seems like she isn't, the girl is deaf too, making this silent and beautiful connection appear. But I just at times felt like they just happened to beside each-other. They barely ever make any eye contact. You never truly feel that silent love for each other. It felt similar to how when Takeshi Kitano is acting, he has a stone face, but in the case of these characters it doesn't work. Kitano can do his usual emotionless face yet somehow convey a character underneath that face with emotions. The two leads in this cannot do that, and it hurts the film greatly. The film also suffers from being extremely repetitive. We see people walking down the same road numerous times, see the same surfing scenes again and again without any noticeable differences. I wouldn't have minded if you we're seeing him improve his surfing skills each time, but I felt like he didn't really. Even at the end he seemed... okay. His surfing was just good. I didn't know whether that was the point or if he was supposed to actually look really good at it. The surfing feels pointless if there is not a big change in skill. I just felt like I watched a movie about two deaf people who sit around and don't look at each other, and on of them becomes mediocre at surfing. Although I will say the soundtrack is amazing. The music gave me the feelings that I wish the characters would have. It helped add emotional impact to scenes that, without the aid of Joe Hisaishi's score, would have been dull. Kitano also gives us some great shots to take in and enjoy, but the repetition of a lot of them can wear on you.

In the end, it has some beautiful scenes, but just doesn't cut it. I wish I could have loved this, because Kitano can do some amazingly touching stuff, but it didn't hit my buttons in the right way.

The silence is beautiful and poetic. The wave of the sea is the heartbeats of the hearing-impaired young couple, that only the people with beautiful mind can hear. The audience view the story from a distance but is consciously involved with things go. This is the best film from Japanese comedian/director Takeshi Kitano.