Still the Water

Death, love, commitment...the movie treats those question in a very human rhythm, and surprises you in its deepness. I was moved to tears.

It's set in a paradisaical coast of a Japanase island, full of light and sea. The actors are impressively true and beautiful.

Japanase music being played and sang was a real plus too. The few scenes happening in Tokyo were a really good reflection to appreciate better the lifestyle in that countryside.

the last third of the movie was maybe a little bit slow to reveal itself, but it saved some great scenes and was matching the rest of it.

It's also socially and culturally very enriching and interesting. Leaves you with true surprises about the way these kids behave towards losing someone, towards relationships, etc.

This film is about life and death and love, about existence itself. It talks to us from a far away island surrounded by the Ocean. Of course if you want to perceive such things you must open your mind, listen very carefully and most important you must take your time. Because the film goes slowly, with a pace we are not used to and that you could hate in the beginning or that could make you fall asleep.

Since most things pass through your eyes the director has to show you what you must see: trees, faces, waves… and the camera lingers on these things the time needed to make sure that your feelings are correctly oriented and you are ready to understand.

I'm not sure that everybody is going to like it. Me? Personally I loved it (after a while). And in the end I thought that the Author was correct about everything... for example: aren't kisses the hallmark of love?

Disregard the bubble gum chewing burgers with attention deficit disorder whining about this movie being "boring". Sure, it is slow paced. But it's a very profound and beautiful allegory about nature and life. If you cannot appreciate the poetry of this film, I'm afraid your soul has been rotted away or you never had one.

No, the last film of Naomi Kawase, internationally known as "Still the water", is not a film reserved to "intellectual people", as I heard recently. If we refer to "Last year at Marienbad" (Resnais-1961) as a film for"intellectual people", we find no common point, except slowness of the rhythm.

The spectator should only follow the example of the female heroin, Kyoko, who, in one scene at the beginning, dives into the sea with all her clothes (except her shoes), and enjoy this bath, meeting joyfully with the old-fellow fisherman, "PapyTortoise".

Following her example, we, spectators, should dive into the film, and enjoy the play of sunlight across the branches of the old banyan, just in front of the terrace of Kyoko's house; enjoy the meals lovely prepared by Kyoko's father (so much different from the meals eaten in a restaurant at Tokyo by Kaito, Kyoko's lover, and his father; and completely opposed to the food left by Kaito's mother in the refrigerator); enjoy even the soft departure of Isa, Kyoko's mother, after a long illness, among songs and dances.

I love so much this warm celebration of la joie de vivre, typically a Japanese one, as, after each disaster, typhoon, earthquake or tsunami, we see Japanese people build again, with a strong faith in life, all that has been destroyed.

This movie deserves higher acclaim. I can understand why the director dubs it her masterpiece. The imagery is simply beautiful. The colour and the lighting of the sub-tropical Japanese island is captured perfectly. It makes you want to travel there. The rhythm and the tempo of the movie is slow, which make you wander in the wonderful landscape even longer. This is a poem on pellicule. Of course this is not a blockbuster, it is a totally different ball game, not even in the same ball park. It is like comparing techno music to Beethoven. Both have their charms and peers. Thematically, it is pretty far away from the high technological Japan, although there is a passage in Tokio. The sea and the landscape are definitely protagonists as well. As are the hundred years old trees. It is kind of a spiritual experience this movie. For me it was too short, I wished it lasted longer than two hours. You can rewatch the movie in smaller pieces and reflect them. It talks about all the Freudian core concepts: Eros and Thanatos. Life, death, sex and love, youth and old age, they are intertwined in this movie. It makes it a very visceral though subtle experience. It's soaked in the blue colours of the sky and sea, and the gold of the sun and skin colours. The music is very soulful as well, the chants, the prayers make it a very spiritual experience. Very cathartic film, warm, deep, poetic about letting go and awakening love. I am very curious to see this Japan and its incredible nature, this eastern beauty. It's balm for the soul.