Customer Reviews

Lost Paradise

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Just how much would one be willing to sacrifice for the one you thought was your one true love? Now what if you were both already married??

This film explores a relationship between a man and a woman who embark on a journey to discover the extent of their passion and love for each other. Don't expect the Western style, passionately choreographed love scenes, you won't find them here - it is just not done like that in Japanese film. Instead, look deeper at the sensuality of the emotions the characters are expressing for each other.

Though this film may not quite fit into the reality of relationships in the Western world where it is relatively simple to just get divorced and move on, if you keep in mind the film is in the context of the Japanese culture, then you might discover some interesting cultural insights. The truth is that in Japan this type of relationship (except the sequence of events in the very end of the film) happens quite often and just isn't talked about. This certainly influenced the strength and level of interest when it originally was released in Japan.

This is an excellent film - sensual, erotic, with the added element of revealing some of the Japanese cultural aspects of this type of relationship.

This film is beautiful, delicate, romantic, trully sensitive. But this edition only have one chapter!!! The whole film in only one chapter! A star the less for that. But, this film is wonderful.

Given the popularity of this film in Japan a few years ago, I was expecting something more. In many ways, the plot is derivative of "In the Realm of the Senses". While I have very mixed feelings about "In the Realm of the Senses", it had much more emotional (some of it negative, but nonetheless meaningful) impact than "Lost Paradise." "Lost Paradise" suffers from an abundance of mediocre love scenes (when a few genuinely moving ones would be better), a predictable ending, and a huge lack of character development. While the situation presented is a bit controversial due to the nature of Japanese marital laws, the film's failure is its inability to make the audience understand, or care about, the motives of the characters on anything more than a surface level. By the end of the movie, our protagonists are little more than cardboard cutouts going through their predestined motions.

I've watched this movie three times and learn from it each and every time. It is difficult for a Westerner, more so, a Frenchman such as myself not to wonder why the film cannot have a more happy ending. Though married, and wanting to be with each other, one would think that it would be easy to begin afresh, start a new life, far from what we assume is Tokyo, either in Hokkaido or Okinawa, Japan's extremes, or another place with a large Japanese minority such as Hawaii, Guam or Saipan. Instead they choose suicide as way to be "together forever", suicide as it is well documented, being extremely common in Japan, the number being in the neighborhood of 32,000 people, more so then traffic deaths, averaging one every 45 minutes somewhere in the country. The scenes are typical though and reflect the society well. The wife suspects something and consequently asks for a divorce. No shouting, banging on the table, broken glasses; calm resignation to the facts at hand. The other lady, also married, comes homes to a husband who has hired a detective, and just tells her that he knows everything, even her lover's name, but that he will not give her the satisfaction of a divorce, that she is still his wife. She replies as he goes upstairs by asking him if has anything for the washing machine. Good film overall, odd editing at times, but an interesting reflection and comment on extramarital affairs involving love in Japan.

This movie is not for minors. I found this movie okay. I would watch it again and recommend it. The poem the movie was based on was well acted out in the movie. I was not offended by the explicit love scenes.

Lost Paradise is a phenomenal movie. The basic premis of this movie is that a Japanese business man who is married falls in love with a housewife of a prominent professor. They begin an affair that proves to be both erotic and with dire consequences. Starring in this movie is the lovely Hitomi Kuroki. She does a wonderful job acting as well as being just stunning on screen.

This movie was not without out its controversy when it was released in Japan. It is legal for a male to have an affair, but it still remains illegal for a woman to do so. Hence....controversy.

A modern day Japanese version of Romeo and Juliet. It is not to be missed.