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Eiji Okuda, Hidetaka Yoshioka, Masatoshi Nagase, Michiko Kawai, Miho Tsumiki ...( see more  see more... ) , Misa Shimizu , Nagiko Tono , Renji Ishibashi , Tenshi Kamogawa , Yumiko Nogawa

This lyrical movie, directed by Kei Kuwai and based on a script by the legendary Akira Kurosawa, chronicles the lives of two women at a brothel in ancient Japan. O-Shin (Nagiko Tohno) cuts through cla...( read more  read more... )ss divisions by falling in love with a young samurai, while the more experienced Kikuno (Misa Shimizu) juggles two suitors -- one gentle, one not. When a stranger, Ryosuke (Masatoshi Nagase), shows up at their doorstep, everything changes.

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77% liked it

1,155 ratings

R, 119 min.

Directed by: Kei Kumai

Release Date: June 5, 2003

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DVD Release Date: November 18, 2003

Stats: 65 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (65)

  • FangsFirst
    May 18, 2008
    FangsFirst
    Another foreign language film I picked up on a whim--this time because, of course, it was the last script written by Akira Kurosawa.

    I didn't know whether a Kurosawa script would guarantee a good film (and of course one could always deviate even if the script would near enough g...( read more)uarantee it). It was clearly, from the cover, yet another jidaigeki (period drama) film, which is no surprise with Kurosawa. Oshin (Nagiko Tono) is a prostitute who makes her home in the brothel in a red-light district (indeed there are other brothels next door and across the street, leading to inappropriate ponderings of 'brand names' and the like, or whether there are favoured brothels amongst their customers). She is warned not to fall in love with clients, but when young samurai Fusanosuke (Hidetaka Yoshioka) appears and avoids using her as a prostitute, begging to be hidden for disgracing himself by drawing his sword in a drunken--and guided--rage, she cannot help herself. When he asks her to cleanse herself by giving up her craft, suggesting that as with the physiological aspects of the human body, one can cleanse one's soul through willpower combined with time, she mistakes this for a declaration of his own interest in her--making her an acceptable choice from a high-class person like himself. He finally returns a last time to tell her he has returned to the graces of his father, only to reveal that in fact he is also continuing his arranged marriage. Heartbroken, Oshin only manages to fall again--but this time for the absolute class-disgrace of Ryosuke (Masatoshi Nagase) who was a beggar, an unpaid cook and--this seems to be a cultural horror--best friends with nothing more than a dog he found and slept next to for warmth. He suggests an exit of suicide, but Oshin stops him and the two begin to find something more in each other, even as the clash of the other clients of the brothel--as well as the incalculable element of weather--begins to bring their private emotional abode into a veritable tempest.

    At first, I was not sure what to make of the film. I had carefully planned not to expect a Kurosawa film--Kei Kumai, no disrespect intended, is not Kurosawa, even if I were to find out he was his equal in talent, he is simply a different man--but to see some elements of one. Performances do continue with Kurosawa's draw on Japanese theatre, it seems, with a more pronounced physicality than one would expect from a Western film. The period nature and the way of the characters themselves, thoroughly tortured by circumstance and decisions that revolve around honour and class, were very reminiscent of the old master, but Kumai's style is somewhat less pronounced as a director, with less to give this film standout qualities. Perhaps, though, this was intentional, being done to guarantee the preservation of Kurosawa's writing without the presence of his directorial control and style.

    The film does not suffer dramatically for being the writings of one director in the hands of another--performances by Nagase, Tono, Yoshioka (as well as those of the other prostitutes and clients, especially Misa Shimizu as Kikuno, elder prostitute eventually left in charge of the brothel when the madam leaves temporarily) are solid if not overtly exceptional, filming is perhaps somewhat static, but not distractingly or exhaustingly langorous, serving to film the story rather than interpret it in most cases. Images and events remain just as fascinating and engaging though, a solid viewing experience, as well as a relatively good emotional one. Nothing stands out enough to sing the praises of the film above and beyond others, but there is little to detract from it, either.
  • jsd35
    June 11, 2007
    jsd35
    I dslike romanticisation of Geisha and Samurai, and put off watching this film for some time. But I was pleasantly surprised. It's a heart warming film, well told, and vividly shot.
  • hermecamp777
    October 21, 2009
    hermecamp777
    I love this Japanese movie about a loving Geisha.
  • Budgeburgess
    April 14, 2009
    Budgeburgess
    The screenplay was famously written by Kurosawa, adopted from a couple of notable Japanese short stories, but it languished, unmade, until after the maestro's death. Translating Kurosawa's notes and storyboard into a finished film became something of an article of faith for many ...( read more)of Japan's filmmakers. The result, "The Sea is Watching", is a flawed but enchanting story set in Tokyo's red light district in the mid-19th century.

    As a costume drama, it is elegantly and elegiacally shot. You are led into a computer-generated model village, cut off from the more respectable quarters of the city by a river - if you wished to sin in the 19th century, you had to cross a bridge, symbolically leaving behind the moral restraints of normative society! Within this self-contained but still male-dominated community, the girls aggressively tout for business on the streets, or, in quiet times, sit listening to one of their number read from a romantic novel, dreaming of a different world.

    O-Shin (Nagiko Tohno) is the youngest, most romantic girl in her brothel. She yearns for love. Two men enter her life - the one a disgraced young samurai, the other a mere peasant who feels his life has been a failure. Finally, wind, rain, and sea will transform O-Shin's life.

    "The Sea is Watching" is a study of moral and social boundaries. The rich, the poor, men and women, all have prescribed and proscribed lifestyles. Change is conceivable, within limits - O-Shin is told she can regain her purity by ceasing to work. But change is easier in fantasy, in dreams, or in romantic novels than it is in real life. In the real world, a dramatic sea change is needed to transform life - and then, only with the destruction of the old, and no little personal sacrifice.

    "The Sea is Watching" echoes many of Kurosawa's themes, yet paradoxically stands in contrast to them. His historical epics are about males - this is about women. There is posturing and aggression, but the one fight in the film portrays the antagonists as incompetent and not as the professionally adept samurai whose fighting skills are more usually beautifully choreographed. And, while Kurosawa often made use of the natural phenomena of wind and rain, here the sea is a quiet onlooker, until the storm breaks and it is revealed as an irresistible force ... like morality and social structure.

    "The Sea is Watching" is a charming, thoroughly engaging and highly watchable film, beautifully shot and neatly realised. The DVD offers an informative extra on the making of the film and insight into Kurosawa's intent. But, overall, you are left feeling just a little dissatisfied ... feeling that there is some missing ingredient which might have made this a superb film. The missing ingredient, of course, is Kurosawa's genius. Nevertheless, a film which deserved to be made, and a film which is well worth watching, as an absorbing piece of drama and as a visual spectacle.
  • aprilboyd1
    January 8, 2007
    aprilboyd1
    Kurosawa is never a bad movie.
  • magikthighs
    June 16, 2006
    magikthighs
    Akira Kurosawa's final script of love and wanting is brought to the screen (after Kuroawa's death in '98) by director Kei Kumai. The production values seem fairly high and, perhaps because of this, the setting is far too clean - as if it's been purchased from a mail order catalog...( read more)ue. The characters are strangely bland and have little depth. Without genuinely touching drama and characters it descends into melodrama of a rather uninspired quality. The cinematography seems too blatent, but it's certainly a noble effort and the story remains somewhat unique.
  • sickgoth
    May 21, 2006
    sickgoth
    YOU MUST WATCH THIS MOVIE

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