No review available.
Comment
10/13/05
The Sea is Watching (2003)
58 %
Reviews Counted: 26 Fresh: 15 Rotten:11 Average Rating: 6.1/10
Runtime: 1 hr 59 mins
Synopsis: Based on a screenplay by the late filmmaking legend Akira Kurosawa, Kei Kumai's THE SEA IS WATCHING follows the lives of women residing and working at a brothel in Edo-era Japan. Amidst the daily rountines of tea and gossip, the ladies of the Ashi No Ya house, inevitably get emotionally... [More]
Genre: Foreign Films
Reviews
sad and compelling, yet laced with an underlying message of dignity and hope. Perhaps Kumai is no Kurosawa - but I don't know if Kurosawa could have done it much better.
06/07/04
Click to read the article
02/13/04
It’s not only worth seeing as “Kurosawa’s last story,” but also simply as a good, solid drama.
11/19/03
It has been directed by Kei Kumai as a film that seems more melodramatic and sentimental than Kurosawa's norm.
10/24/03
Top Critic
Filled with love and melancholy, it's a fitting, fond epilogue to [Kurosawa].
10/23/03
While this material isn't necessarily up to the standards of Kurosawa's best work, it does warrant at least a look.
10/10/03
You could literally hang any random frame on the wall and call it art.
07/27/03
I don't think I'm going too far out on a limb by saying the Sea that Kurosawa must have envisioned had to be a whole lot more compelling and focused than the one now delivered by veteran director Kei Kumai.
07/25/03
Those who delight in small-scale virtues may find their interest held by the meticulous detail that Kumai lavishes on various Japanese rituals -- everything from pouring tea to holding swords. Everyone else, however, need not check in.
07/22/03
Top Critic
[T]here were times when The Sea is Watching bored me. But Kumai and Kurosawa won me back with the final scenes, which are stark and beautiful, and a fitting finale for one of the world's great filmmakers.
07/22/03
An absorbing slice of a lost world that's actually very reminiscent of Kurosawa's underappreciated 1957 film, The Lower Depths.
07/22/03
The Sea Is Watching most likely wouldn't have made it to New York if not for the Kurosawa connection. That link is also the main reason to see it.
07/22/03
There's plenty to appreciate here but the story is tedious and some of the overacting runs into cultural translation problems.
07/22/03
It has a softer edge than the master probably would have delivered, but it is deeply affecting and recalls the Kumai film best known in the U.S., the 1974 Sandakan 8.
07/22/03
Top Critic
Though formally beautiful, Sea Is Watching is remarkably trite in comparison to the great Japanese films on the subject.
07/22/03
IGN RSS Feeds