Customer Reviews

The Sea Is Watching [VHS]

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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)

This is the story of a year in the life of a small house of prostitution in Edo's "Floating World" (entertainment district), particularly of the manager Miss (second in command, who takes over when the owner "Missus" dies), and of one of the 'girls' O-Shin who, as one character comments, "has a good heart; she just shouldn't keep giving it away."

The film begins with the bright side of the district and their life, its gaiety, camaraderie and even tranquility. The setting and story are so delightful and cheerful that after a few minutes I was inspired to pause the DVD and go fix a cup of steaming ko-kei cha and a plate of tea biscuits. A young samurai, fleeing the law after a fight, begs to stay the night. They hide him, disguising him as a commoner customer of O-Shin's. After a chaste night, he leaves with gratitude and we can see on her face that she is taken with him. Miss cautions her against falling in love, and when he comes to see her O-Shin sends him away, saying never return, believing he is forever beyond reach. He is in exile from his father's house, and must go in disguise, yet he keeps returning as the seasons turn, being turned away. One day, though, O-Shin runs after him, meeting on a wintry bridge. The others debate her wisdom, but becoming convinced of his devotion, and particularly when in the spring he earnestly explains she can lose her 'fallen woman' status by remaining 'pure' for some time, they offer to take on her customers yet share the proceeds. Everyone expects something to come of this, and they are involved and hopeful, seeing hope for themselvers if only by proxy. Some reluctantly, some eagerly, they come to believe the fairy tale will really happen.

Needless to say it does not work out (that shouldn't be a spoiler .. what do you expect when it's all so happy a half hour into the film?), and the resolution of this first story is devastating to all.

O-Shin's very first customer after returning to work is a commoner Ryosuke who seems deeply troubled, and in the morning she wakes to find him crying and despondent. He flees precipitately, but returns in the evening, and tells her a sad tale of a hard life. Once again, O-Shin falls in love, and this time her compatriots are skeptical, but their relationship continues and grows.

The film ends with a giant storm, and floods both from the river and the sea. Much is washed clean (this is where the title comes from, the sea is watching over their troubles, and comes in to cover them over) and much comes clean amid the drama. I won't spoil the resolution, but suffice it to say that, as Miss says, O-Shin has "found a good one this time."

I have shorted the story of Miss, with her older gentlemanly lover and bad-boy Yakuza boyfriend, and her tales of being a fallen samurai with a child in a distant village, but she is almost equally important to the film though not so front and center as O-Shin, and becomes intimatly involved in the final resolution.

I at first was inclined to take away a "*" for some lapses in realism, particularly during the storm and flood (as portrayed it just didn't seem that deadly, particularly at the end), but when viewed as something between a filmed stage production and the realism (or hyper-realism) of a dramatic Hollywood production, as akin to the remarkable "Kwaidan", this objection vanishes. My remaining quibble is ... haven't these people ever heard of a bailing can?

What a beautiful picture and a moving story! I haven't seen the recent American adaptation of "Memoirs of a Geisha", and I would certainly choose not to see it after seeing this one. I would be too disappointed. The fact that the "Sea is Watching" was directed by a native of Japan gives the story a lot more interest and credibility.

It gives somewhat a comic insight into a brothel by the Nippon sea at the beginning of the 19th century. Life in such an environment can be cruel and people quite ruthless. Yet, the movie doesn't focus on that: it is instead very compassionate towards the prostitutes, elegant figures imprisonned in brightful kimonos and their rich clients, who are seen here as either fallen angels (the Geisha) or fallen heros (the Samourai). The movie has many extremely funny scenes and dialogues except - of course, towards the end.

As with all Japanese poetry, it is a total delight. Human Life, after all, resembles that of a brothel: a constant struggle, an escape from reality, an imperfect world of games and lies, and an unsuccessful search for love and happiness. And yet, there is hope. Here, the deliverance comes in the form of a typhon. The angry sea finally soars with winds blowing, flooding the streets and sweeping away the brothel's woodhouses, taking away its sins and freeing the Geishas.

Does freedom only comes with death after all?

This is not a film for fans of epic battles or monumental amounts of gore, nor is it for those with a short attention span. Without giving anything away, the script spends a good 50% of its time developing a very simple, cliché and generally predictable love story. It is during this time that I found myself sitting there wishing I hadn't wasted money on what I felt was a studio's attempt to cash in on the unfinished work of a dead master by producing such a dreadful period piece. However, if you stick to your guns, this trite and contrived story eventually gives way to a larger and more interesting story that had been running underneath the surface, and this one is where the payoff lies.

Would Kurosawa have shot it differently? Almost certainly, but he's dead, so there's no point in arguing about that. The writing is very much in tune with all of his later works however, and I do believe that this film told the story he wanted to tell successfully regardless of who sat behind the camera. The chroma keying at the end was pretty shabbily done, but otherwise I ended up enjoying the film quite a bit despite my initial impressions. It certainly makes that other big-budget Geisha movie look like a steaming pile of something in comparison.

"The Sea Is Watching" was written by legendary director Akira Kurosawa. After his death, his screenplay was directed by Kei Kumai who has been working since the 1960s in film. The cinematography is magical. The little red light district community is charmingly filmed, set off from the rest of the world by a bridge, with the Japanese lanterns and the traditional furnishings creating a lovely set. As the storm rages and the house floods, the set transforms into an eerie gothic disaster, only to end with the glorious milky way as the backdrop to the very final act.

In what is her first film (as far as I can tell), Nagiko Tohno plays O-shin, a beautiful romantic fallen on hard times. Like a Japanese Meryl Streep, she sheds tears at the drop of a hat. Her incredible emotional range at going from elation and devotion to despair and grief is breathtaking. Fusanosuke is a young samurai who has killed or wounded another and is fleeing the police. Hidetaka Yoshioka who has acted in at least 15 films since 1971 including Kurosawa's "Rhapsody in August" plays the young warrior that O-Shin disguises & protects. He seems to fall in love with her, even getting her to give up prostitution for a time that leads her to believe he would break the caste barriers and marry her. When he comes back and thoughtlessly announces his engagement to another, it breaks her heart. Ryosuke is another customer for who O-Shin falls. He has had hard luck, being an orphan, and veers from anger to depression. He is played by Masatoshi Yoshioka who was in "Suicide Club" & played Dark Horse with a blond wig in "Pistol Opera." Eventually, he serves as the story's hero, slaying an enemy and saving the day. Misa Shimizu plays Miss Kikuno, a worker in the brothel who assumes command. She has invented a great history for herself as being from a samurai family and urges O-Shin on, eventually at great sacrifice to herself. Shimizu starred in 1997's "The Eel" and 2001's "Warm Water Under a Red Bridge." The actors do a great job as the director tries to bring Kurosawa's vision to fruition. The actors rivet us to screen and the cinematography provides stunning eye candy. Enjoy!

'Umi wa miteita' ('The Sea is Watching') was Akira Kurasawa's swansong to film: his adaptation of his favored novelist Shugoro Yamamoto's story into a screenplay he intended to film was his final mark he left on a brilliant career. Director Kei Kumai pays homage to both Kurosawa and Yamamoto in presenting this visually stunning transformation of word to image.

Set in 19th century Japan, the story explores the lives of the women of a Geisha house whose sole purpose in life is to earn money by pleasuring men. The house is run by an older couple who are genteel and the geishas are an enchanting group of women who know their trade and take pride in their careers. Each has a reason for turning to the life of geisha. Oshin (Nagiko Tono) supports her family who live in a neighboring village, Kikuno (Misa Shimizu) has customers both good and evil whom she manages to sustain with her stories of her higher caste. Oshin befriends an endangered samurai, falls in love with the gentle fellow, only to find that he must not marry out of his caste and leaves his pleasures with Oshin to marry his promised betrothed. Oshin's heart bruises easily but is always supported emotionally and physically/monetarily by Kikuno and the other geishas.

A handsome samurai Ryosuke (Masatoshi Nagase) enters Oshin's life and develops the first trusted and devoted relationship with her. Kikuno is beset by problems, deciding whether to accept the humble love of an old man who wishes to marry her, and coping with a rich but abusive customer. All the while the sea is watching and as a typhoon destroys the geisha house and street, Oshin and Kikuno sit atop the roof waiting for the promised rescue by Ryosuke. The manner in which the story ends is one of sacrifice, love, and devotion. The sea is watching and will find protection for true love.

The photography by Kazuo Okuhara is breathtakingly beautiful: night scenes with glowing lanterns and colorful geisha interiors are matched with recurring glimpses of the sea both calm and turbulent. The acting is a bit strained for Edo art, but the characters are well created and keep the story credible. The one distraction which is definitely NOT something Kurosawa would have condoned is the tacky Western music score that sounds like cheap soap opera filler except for the isolated moments when real Japanese music on authentic instruments graces the track. But in the end there is enough of Kurosawa's influence to imbue this film with his brand of dreamlike wonder that will always maintain his importance on world cinema. Grady Harp, November 05

My impressions are deep and almost reverential to this Grand piece of literary Movement. Most of the visuals and camera work is a departure from Kurosawa, but it is the spirit and incredible delicacy of this film that took me. It showed how the Maestros intricate notes were firmly interpreted. You follow the story line like that of a play, sitting front and center, yet feeling you are part of this unfolding beauty as the observer. I love a film that will draw me in. This film not only drew me in, it wrapped me with its parabolic interludes. I could not stay just as the observer but felt and interactive dynamic with the characters. The message to me was clear that the great director left us with...He was a feminist in the most human sense. And man must look at himself through the female...thus the title...The Sea is Watching. This was like a large mirror from Kurosawa's cinematic mind transposed to screen reflecting that feminine flavor. I was simply amazed. Watch and allow your eyes to feast.

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!