My God, My God, Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me?

I happen to think Shinji Aoyama is one of the best film makers working today. I was virtually dragged to see Eureka by my boyfriend who knew nothing about the film, but loved the idea that it was 4 hours long and Japanese: I found myself totally entranced by one of the most absorbing, intensely human films I've ever seen. A couple of years later I ran into Desert Moon and was again bowled over (it took me a moment to realise it was the same director).

As you can imagine I had (very) high expectations of this movie: the bible's most devastating phrase for a title and mass suicide the theme (and believe me, Shinji Aoyama is a master at drawing immense hope out of the deepest despair)... and, well, it wasn't that great. It's still a good film - beautiful to look at, interesting themes intelligently developed, plenty of room given for good acting, and some very lovely music, but it just lacked the depth I was expecting. At some points it even started to resemble a music video...

Maybe I'm being harder on this film than it deserves - it's still more worthwhile than a lot of the films I've seen over the past year - but Shinji Aoyama is capable of genius and simply doesn't deliver it here...

Little prepares the average US film watcher for this one. Is it Japanese over the top violence? No. Is it Japanese S & M sex perversions? No. Is it just general Japanese cultural stuff that doesn't translate well? Not really. What is it?

The only thing I knew about the film was that it was about two musicians making found object music after some major crisis in the near future. What sort of music? I knew what a lot of found object music sounds like but the two musicians featured here were totally unknown to me. The first real clue was a prominently displayed "Borbetomagus" sticker. If you don't know who that is, look them up, "art noise" is a generous description. The musicians (and some will question that) are given large amounts of time where they perform their noise generation (including guitars and synthesizers). I have an appreciation for this type of sound experimenting and was involved with the US art noise scene in it's infancy in the late 1970's and early 80's. Unfortunately the performances in the film are dull except for the final extended solo which is excellent. To have such a well made film revolving around this type of sound would be unheard of in the US.

The plot is simply that the only people infected with the "Lemming Syndrome" who survive have attended concerts by the two musicians. A wealthy man tries to convince the musicians to cure his suicidal daughter. That's about it.

Slowly paced but extremely beautiful. A wonderful music track when the noise is not happening. Subdued but good performances from everyone. A couple of scenes were baffling to me and I don't understand the Biblical reference or why the music group is named "Stepin Fetchit".

This review is a recommendation and a warning.

I consider myself a cinephil; not a cinema freak but at least a person who does not sleep when watching movies other than Hollywood bang-gang-do-sex things; I am outrageous (!!!) not with the director (every one has the right of his "artistic" opinion, provided that there are fellows eager to waste their time and money) but with the sado-masochists programming this film for the 5th Cluj-Napoca TIFF. The most unfairly 107 minutes spent in my life… Zero-Zero-Zero…

P.S. I am rating with one but if the webmaster decide to make the mistake to watch this movie the voting will include the zero value too in the future layouts

Thought it was beautiful and absolutely amazing from beginning to end. With rare dialog (but what's there is hilarious), the main focus is the beautiful cinematography, the sparse and understated performances of everyone, and the NOISE!!! Yes, the noise aspect of the film is what really got me interested in it, but the film as a whole is definitely some kind of minor masterpiece apart from that.

All the beach shots... the shots of the characters walking around making noises.... shots of people sitting, wordless.... shots of people watching the rain. A very slow, VERY minimal art film. I was just in love.

An extremely interesting, unique, moving film... but only about 1 out of every billion people will enjoy it.

"My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?"-- these were the last words of Jesus on the cross, and is the translation of the title of this film.

Minimal dialogue, beautiful sounds, desolate scenery-- With all of those aspects, I found 'Eli, Eli, Lema Sabachthani' to be a beautiful film. The story in itself is something unique and untouched before-- an illness that drives people to suicide, the only cure being sound... Acting by Asano Tadanobu only makes the film more stunning-- he plays his usual disconnected and silent character, but it was very effective in this film, maybe more so than in his other works.

Combining the crazy guitar of 'ELECTRIC DRAGON 8000V' with the subtle beauty of 'Last Life in the Universe', I found 'Eli, Eli, Lema Sabachthani' to be a very interesting, enjoyable film of beauty and disconnect.

I can see where some people would not like this film-- the plot isn't very clear at times, and minutes and minutes pass by with almost no words spoken at all. A melancholic feeling is carried on throughout the entire movie-- with the slow, sorrowful piano often playing in the background, I might even call 'Eli Eli' a bit depressing. But if you're interested in artistic films that take you on a journey, then I think you should see 'Eli, Eli, Lema Sabachthani?'.

I doubt that this movie will ever be for sale on DVD in Europe or North America... But if you speak Japanese, definitely buy the DVD from a seller in Japan.