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.
Comment
06/07/04
The Sea is Watching (2003)
58
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:26
Fresh:15
Rotten:11
Average Rating:6.1/10
Runtime: 1 hr 59 mins
Genre: Foreign Films
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... [More]
Director: Kei Kumai
Reviews for The Sea is Watching
It is a little like following a Jane Austen novel.
07/22/03
It’s not only worth seeing as “Kurosawa’s last story,” but also simply as a good, solid drama.
11/19/03
Despite a hopelessly corny score, the movie is redeemed by a goofily touching final scene.
07/16/03
At times this material is simple nearly to the point of simple-mindedness. But the movie isn't dumb, though it is dismaying to discover that even Kurosawa had an unfilmed script romanticizing the need of prostitutes for love.
07/21/03
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
Not particularly inspired but worth seeing in that this was Akira Kurosawa's last screenplay.
07/07/03
Kurosawa's script, with its lyrical mix of metaphors and signature moments of song, will at the very least remind you of his greatness.
07/22/03
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
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[A]delightful and surprisingly feminist film.
07/22/03
Filled with love and melancholy, it's a fitting, fond epilogue to [Kurosawa].
10/23/03
Technically, it's an impossible film to fault--performances, cinematography and art direction are all first-rate, coalescing in a finale that is impressively deft. If only Kurosawa had lived long enough for a rewrite.
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
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
Though formally beautiful, Sea Is Watching is remarkably trite in comparison to the great Japanese films on the subject.
07/22/03
The formidable lineage, alas, doesn't make for a compelling work.
07/15/03
No review available.
10/13/05
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
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