Product Details

• Actors: Misa Shimizu, Nagiko Tôno, Masatoshi Nagase, Hidetaka Yoshioka, Miho Tsumiki
• Directors: Kei Kumai
• Writers: Kei Kumai, Akira Kurosawa, Shûgorô Yamamoto
• Producers: Hajime Satomi, Haruyuki Machida, Hirotake Yoda, Hisao Kurosawa
• Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: Japanese (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Subtitles: English, Spanish, Portuguese, Georgian, Chinese, Thai
• Region: Region 1 encoding (US and Canada only)
  PLEASE NOTE: Some Region 1 DVDs may contain Regional Coding Enhancement (RCE). Some, but not all, of our international customers have had problems playing these enhanced discs on what are called "region-free" DVD players. For more information on RCE, click here.
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
• DVD Release Date: November 18, 2003
• Run Time: 119 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0000CGNEG
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #100,937 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "The Sea Is Watching" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars How the sea watches, destroys, and purifies, July 4, 2004

By 

Daniel J. Hamlow (Narita, Japan) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Sea Is Watching [VHS] (VHS Tape)

As seen in Umi Wa Miteiru, life for prostitutes in Japanese brothels towards the end of the Tokugawa period was rough. Women there have fallen in status or have the bad luck of being unable to support themselves any other way. Wearing brightly-coloured kimonos and lots of makeup, they drum up business by soliciting prospective customers on the street. And the mission statement of prostitutes is cheekily given at one point by two of them: give the customers a good time and never get involved. If they fall in love, you don't. And make sure you get paid.

Falling in love-that's the trouble with O-shin. She has a good heart, but keeps giving it away, as someone observes, and she keeps getting involved with customers. One is a young samurai named Fusanosuke Ihara, for whom she covers up when he flees after drawing his sword and wounding a man. Following the rules of the house, she forbids him to come to her, and even has Kikuno, one of the senior girls lie to the samurai. However, she's in love, though disheartened by the caste difference between them. He tells her how there's always change, and despite her body being soiled, she could be pure again if she stopped. The other girls band together to help her achieve this life, by taking on her customers and giving her the money so she can get married and be respectable, but disappointment is ahead.

Kikuno herself has two very different customers. One is a kindly older man who asks her to live with him. A friend of the madam, he always visits, bringing sweets to share with the other women. The other is a yakuza-type who sponges off her, and is pretty rough with her. Kikuno though, prides herself on her samurai background, something that at one point arouses the envy of O-kichi, one of the other girls. O-kichi herself takes O-shin's disappointment with Fusanosuke so personally, the other girls have to drag her away screaming, which can be heard for some time, and would be funny were it not so heartbreaking for O-shin, who easily gains the sympathy of the viewer. But Kikuno is a very dependable young woman, even becoming acting madam when the real madam goes to the spa for her illness, willing to take responsibility and look after the other girls like they were her younger sisters.

Then there's the quiet and brooding Ryosuke, someone who has consistently drawn the short straw all his life, forced to be a child beggar protected by a dog, to learning a trade but never being paid. Full of desperation, he has resorted to getting money that was legally his at knifepoint. O-shin finds herself pitying this man who has been cheated and trampled on all his life. The others think he would bring bad luck to O-shin, already burdened with getting money to look after her little sister. Misfortune doubled would thus equal misery.

The customs and caste differences serve as a reminder that we're looking into another world. In the case of Fusanosuke, he has to go to his relatives as a courtesy call following his father forgiving him for his indiscretion. It serves not only as an apology but as a dedication that one is willing to do better this time around and not shame the family. Another is the way prostitutes escort their customers to the door, thanking them, and asking them to come again, or the courteous greeting call of "ira-shaimaseh!" or "please come in!" from the assigned greeter. And of course, how people remove their geta or sandals before entering.

The wooden steps leading down to the forbidden district seem to make it a separate world from Edo. The festive atmosphere from a parade lightens the film at times. And this film, written by Akira Kurosawa and directed by Kei Kumai, projects a message of hope for the downtrodden, those cheated by life, that some divine power or force is watching them. The sea thus manifests its Shiva/Vishnu-like dichotomy at the climactic, horrifying end, destroying the old with a fury, but ushering in a new start for everyone.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent film by a lesser master., November 26, 2003

By 

Daniel C. Wilcock "journal-ist" (Washington, D.C.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Sea Is Watching (DVD)

The Sea is Watching may never have been filmed by its author, the
late great master of Japanese Cinema Akira Kurosawa, but it fits very, VERY, nicely in a collection of his other films. Kurosawa's films mostly featured men and their world, particularly his early muscular films like Seven Samurai. I think he wrote this film after reflecting on this point. So seldom does the focus of the galaxy of samurai films remain on the jilted-lover, the poor woman left behind. Not only does this film do that, it focuses on the dregs of society - prostitutes. Yet the world of the prositiutes is not stark. It is rich and colorful. Here it is nice to see state-of-the-art production values brought to a Kurosawa story: we can watch one of his stories in crisp color. The basic story line is a theme universal in Kurosawa's films: the struggle for human dignity in an unforgiving world. Nature is also personified and plays a role in the drama - a recurring theme throughout Kurosawa's work.
The movie centers around a young geisha named O-Shin who seems destined for a higher life but is constantly ground into the dirt. Just as she thinks the worst has come, nature plays its part. The sea that watches the prostitures "water trade" and fleeting lives, fittingly has the last say. Director Kei Kumai may not possess Kurosawa's cinematic flair nor feverish genius.
But he does turn in a handsome film worthy to be included in Kurosawa's legacy.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A tale of hope and sorrow, beautifully told...., February 21, 2004

By 

Riss-sama (Indiana) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Sea Is Watching (DVD)

I am not a vetran to subbed films, I however, found this film particularly refreshing compared to some of the trash they insist to put in american movies. The script (from what i could tell according the the subtitles) was intelligent and meaningful. Along with the two refreshing love stories, i found the scenes of the ocean and fields very picturesque.

The Romance element was sweet. This film very accuratly depicted the risks one takes in the development of a relationship. The story with the young samurai was tragic, and in many ways realistic. For in the end, the castes, and misinterperated intentions, occur in many ways. The case of the misfortunate man, was equally moving and logical. But beyond this, was the devotion the girls in the teahouse had for each other.

I found some of the scenes (like the milky way scene) too unbelieveable,but only suceeeded to make it more charming. So i deducted the star for lagging on abit where it could have cut some useless scenes. (but who am i to critcize, i cant even spell)