The Sea Is Watching

Rating:
Summary: Graceful and Beautiful To Watch
Review: This movie is quite a departure from Kurosawa's speciality in the grand epic and heroic. Instead, this movie is intimate and about downtrodden women working as prostitutes during the Edo period. This movie meant to be made by Kurosawa himself and much of the production notes and scripts were done but alas, he passed away. Anyhow, in this DVD offering, there was a behind-the-scene where the Director explained his faithfulness to Kurosawa's vision of the final cut of this movie. Whilst the behind-the-scene was brief, we did see that much research was taken to ensure that the set and costumes were relevant to the period the movie was based. From the fates of O-Shin (young prostitute) and her Madam, their workplace, not only we witnessed the hardship that they went through, but we managed to catch a glimpses of their courage to persevere and hoping for a better future. Those prostitutes wouldn't be who they were if not they were born to poor families. They need to work not for themselves but for their families to sustain their livelihood. Guys that frequented the brothels were either slimeballs or they were well-intended. Despite that this movie was more suitable for TV, like a typical Japanese NHK drama, I enjoyed the cornucopias of colour and sound that graced the brothels when the sun went down, almost mimicking the painting of Lautrec of the Parisian's Moulin Rouge in the 19th century. The ending was akin to the Old Testament where the big storm came to rid of bad elements in the world and thus, the believers got to start their lives afresh again. An open-ending for some but an ending that represented hope for the future. Highly recommended especially for traditional Japanese-philes!