Product Details

• Actors: Isao Numasaki, Chieko Nakakita, Atsushi Watanabe, Zeko Nakamura, Ichiro Namiki
• Directors: Akira Kurosawa
• Writers: Akira Kurosawa, Keinosuke Uekusa
• Producers: Sôjirô Motoki
• Format: Black & White, NTSC
• Subtitles: English
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Homevision
• VHS Release Date: June 13, 2000
• Run Time: 108 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 0780021614
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #325,258 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Yuzo (Isao Numasaki) and Masako (Chieko Nakakita) are engaged to be wed, but how are they supposed to enjoy a happy life together when they can't even muster more than 35 yen to spend on a single day off? The dilemma puts Yuzo in a funk, despairing for their lives and future together in postwar Japan. Masako, on the other hand, is inspired to dream of possibilities, of the strength of their union under hardship and the goals they can reach together. Her optimism drives their day to a number of incidental adventures, moments that don't have anything to do with money but that reveal a kind of life beneath Yuzo's middle-class perceptions of good living. In this splendid, 1947 black-and-white film, Akira Kurosawa takes one of his favorite themes--the challenge of different perspectives--and builds around it a gentle, intimate story of urban love and the wisdom of patience and experience. Generally considered a minor entry in Kurosawa's filmography, One Wonderful Sunday is actually among his most moving stories of despair and hope. --Tom Keogh

Product Description

Kurosawa collaborated with former school chum Keinosuke Uekusa on this script, the story of a young engaged couple whose attempts at dating often are frustrated by a dehumanizing modern city. Masako and Yuko meet on Sunday to steal small pleasures in the midst of the harshness and corruption of Tokyo life, but find that kindness is often overlooked. Their ultimate dream is to hear a performance of Shubert's Unfinished Symphony, the musical metaphor for their relationship. Will they succeed? Kurosawa breaks the fourth wall to let the audience decide -- making One Wonderful Sunday one of the first interactive feature films, and one of his most charming and light-hearted works.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Critics aren't always right, April 16, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: One Wonderful Sunday [VHS] (VHS Tape)

After reading several reviews of this film I was expecting it to be terrible. All of the reviews I have read made this movie seem like it belongs with Ed Wood's collection of terrible films. Therefore I was skeptical before viewing this film, but as I watched the skeptisism waned, and later entirely dissappeared. This film tells the story of a struggling young couple in post WWII Japan. The only time that they get to see one and other is once a week, every Sunday. The part of the film that critics condemn the most is during the films last moments when the female lead turns to the camera and addresses the audience, thus breaking the hallowed convention that critics have only let Mel Brokes break without slaughter. The scene in One Wonderful Sunday, is by no means as bad as some critics state that it is. And after viewing the film in its entirety one is left with a warm feeling of hope, akin to The Shawshank Redemption.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Don't let the subtitles distract you!, March 16, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: One Wonderful Sunday [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This video has to have the worst subtitles -- in format and translation -- that I have ever seen. But please don't let that stop you from seeing One Wonderful Sunday. This is a poignant story about a young couple struggling for normalcy in the aftermath of war. He's a recently returned vet with little left but his pride. She's an eternal optimist who believes in making lemonade, as the saying goes. The twists and turns that this young couple encounter as they try to make the most of the Y35 at their disposal (as near as I can tell, it's the equivalent to a modern date on $5) are fascinating. Watch for the stickball game -- it's classic! But just when you have this pegged as a romantic comedy, Kurosawa hits the heartstrings. Who'd'ha thunk it? A Kurosawa romantic movie!

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Please, let' s help us to applause to make our dreams materialize by themselves, June 18, 2007

By 

Hiram Gomez Pardo (Valencia, Venezuela) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: One Wonderful Sunday (DVD)

1947: the world was just recovering from the horrors and the ashes of the bloody WW2. In Italy, De Sica won the Cannes festival with Shoeshine, Marcel Carne (The children of paradise) and Jean Cocteau (Orpheus) found through the myth and the poetry, solid answers to a deep end question, and at the same time Frank Capra filmed his masterpiece: "It's a wonderful life". In this sense, I want to catch your attention in which concerns the world was hovered by a very thick cloud of hopeless and pain.

In Japan after the devastation and the painful wounds, Akira Kurosawa, a very young director by then, was filming that admirable fable, around two outlaw people, an impoverished couple who simply is unable to make their dreams come true on a Sunday. She dreams with a new home and a renovated life although the odds, and then the magic will arouse among them when the illusion be so strong that be able to materialize a live concert playing the "Unfinished Symphony."

One might say - without hesitation - this was the first Japanese film inscribed into the mainstream best knwon as Neo Realism.

One of these forgotten little gems of this kaleidoscopic filmmaker.