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The movie is based on the last script of Akira Kurosawa.Critics will say - and with some justification - that the director is not on par with the great Master, and this is true, but one should not be expecting another Kurosawa - the Great One is gone, and this movie is a fitting tribute to him, even if one sees some imperfections in it.
But it is a beautiful film that simply must be experienced. In many parts the imaging is simply overpowering, and for all its length the movie doesn't annoy you - in fact I was sorry in ended this soon - I could spend another 119 minutes under its spell.
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By coincidence, I was about to recommend this DVD to you. Not in the same league as his directing swan song, "Madadayo", nevertheless this has Kurosawa's human perspective of giving even the lowest members of society dignity and respect. In the accompanying "making of" documentary, Akira's daughter says that her father was making this film to answer criticism that he did not write positive roles for women. Upon reflection, I recalled that women were portrayed as demons in films like "Ran" and "Throne Of Blood", but I attribute that more to Shakespeare. The documentary also notes Akira's fascination with the Edo "chic" lifestyle of that period. I wonder what he thought of modern Japan's Pachinko parlors, karaoke bars, strip clubs, and pink hotels (seen as subjects in "Lost In Translation").If you haven't seen "Madadayo" yet, please indulge yourself. And if you want to frame it with his very early work, seek out "The Men Who Tread On The Tiger's Tail." A great pair of bookends for a spectacular career.
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Thank you Steve, I missed those two, will try to locate them.I think your comments on the women's roles is spot on, and in the Sea he perhaps had gone slightly too far in the other direction, but all that is understandable, and the characters he created in process were three-dimensional, inspite of some romantization that certainly too place.
Also, for a foreigner it is hard, if not impossible, to place that little world of that house in the right surrounding and time, so perhaps some investigation in Edo is in order. I checked - it lasted from 1600 through 1868 - when do you think the events take place? I thought the 18th century.
Sea is set during the late Edo period (middle 1800's), just before the Meiji Restoration. The samurai have outlasted their societal usefulness and the lifestyles depicted are about to be radically changed.I forgot to mention that Sea's director, Kei Kumai, also directed the outstanding "Sandakan No. 8." That film is similar in theme to Sea, and it broke my heart when I saw it in the theater. It depicts the fate of a poor woman being sold into a life of prostitution at the frontier of the Japanese Empire in Borneo during the 1930's, and cruelness of mainland Japanese turning away and closing their doors on these women. Highly recommended.
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