Customer Reviews

Yūreka [VHS]

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a truly amazing film--demanding, yes, but so is all great art. Stick with it and you will be amply rewarded. But why is this film only available on dvd in Europe and Asia? Region coding = mindless greed.

No, I don't regret having spent over 3 and 1/2 hours in the movie theater. It was no sacrifice, but yielding so much in return. I never got bored during this time, although the film can hardly be called very suspenseful.

What made me forget the time and relish the story, was the mood created between those four persons, who are so different, but connected by a horrible reminder of a bloody bus hijacking. Missing every assistance of their own relatives, they find together to a new family, helping each other, very slowly regaining the courage of life, until finally, during the last five minutes of the film, the monochrome switches to color, emphasizing the optimistic end.

It's a calm story of friendship and amicable love, of trust in the sense of life and of forgiveness, it's the kind of movie I never forget.

How touching are the 2 scenes, when the girl enumerated the people for whom she was praying: her deceased dad, her gone mom, her brother in prison, her friend the bus driver, and among all these mostly beloved persons, exactly at the third place, she mentioned the dead bus hijacker, so as to care for the soul of this man who had scared her to death and had killed so many innocent passengers.

"Eureka" is one of those films most people would not sit through because of it's near 4 hour length. Forget time, the sit is worth it for this superior Japanese Foreign Film. Exquisively acted and directed, "Eureka," is a film you don't want to miss.

The story revolves around a brother and sister, and a busdriver, all who survived a busjacking. They eventually all three end up together because of tragic circumstances, along with the siblings' cousin for the ride. Though it moves slow, it feels as if you're with them, watching everything they see, and feel. It's the kind of movie you have to pay close attention to in order to be rewarded with it's unexpected ending. The only thing that may make keep you from watching it, besides it's length, is it's thematical material. It is extremely depressing, no happiness, until the end, even though it is still very depressing. Great cinematograpy, camera work, acting, direction, music, sound, and what else can I say, but that Eureka, is in deed, a classic

"Eureka" is heavily influenced by several artists:Taiwanses film director Hou Hsiao-Hsien's long take style,the free jazz of Albert Ayler's "Ghosts",music of Jim O'Rourke's "Eureka" and Sonic Youth's "Daydream Nation".It's all mixed up and the whole film become a healing process from a disaster.Cinematography of this film is so great.One of the best film in 2001.

It's what expected and more, it's a great product I have purchased and I do recommend it, if this is what your looking for.

After three and a half slow paced, sepia toned hours experiencing emotional pain and anguish I still watched the credits roll. This film starts off with a man hijacking a bus and killing most everyone on it for no apparent reason. The driver and two middle school kids survive, and we spend the rest of the film watching them live with it. We watch them fall asleep watching television and other mundane matters but there is not a wasted frame in this film. There are a remarkable number of plot points to keep things moving forward but it still feels like suspended animation, like time is moving inward instead of along. Koji Yakusho is sublime and Aoi Miyazaki, at like twelve years old--and without saying a word for nearly the entire runtime--is mesmerizing. This film is a masterpiece, a journey exploring the myriad layers of trauma, of metaphorical death, and what three people endure on a path to renewal and emergence from a world of silent suffering. It will take your breath away.

This is not a conventional film, and a majority of folks may not like this film. I absolutely loved it. Much of the "story" is presented visually, with very little dialogue. And even at 3.75 hours, I did not get bored. The film looks beautiful! The actors and directing give tons of depth to the characters. This is not a movie that tells you a "story". You watch the events of the characters and hopefully get a sense of what they experience. I felt like I was on the bus.

Eureka is a fantastic film of everything, from drama, thriller, romance, mystery, and beyond. It takes a long road to get there, but has intrigue to keep you with it. Though most of the movie is very depressing, it resolves in an ending that can be taken both pessimistic or optomistic. It just depends how you view it. By the way, I believe one viewer was asking about it on DVD. ...

There is an excellent 100-minute film in Eureka, but this monster is an exercise in tedium that will appeal only to a particular niche of film buffs. Other reviewers point out that this is mainly a visual experience, with movie tributes to the likes of Hou Hsiao-Hsien for the anoraks to delight in spotting. But nobody seems able to tell me WHY it is so long. There is one scene where the bus pulls out of a diner's car park, and drives up the road that extends into the distance, over the hill and out of sight. Fixed camera wide shot, no cuts. It takes 2 minutes 40 seconds - why? We know where the bus is going, and the frame is not particularly interesting to look at. Maybe there is a deeper meaning to such anti-editing statements that I am missing, but it looks like Aoyama just couldn't be bothered cutting the thing properly. Two stars for the cinematography.

A paradox of good and bad cinema, like last year's "Dancer in the Dark", it is a mile-wide screen of bleak, bright images, like watching clothes drying on a clothes line in a mesmerized trance. The country of Japan has never before been seen as beautiful and revealing as this, miles of winding road hillsides and clay carved suburbia as comfortable as "The Flintstones" neighborhood. The black and white film (silver, really) is colorized at the Director's discretion, a subtle change from grey to color with the emotional rhythm of the movie. But "Eureka", about three post-traumatic stress victims on the lam puts women and mental disorder in a samurai's spitoon. I never believed Japaneese women were as subservient as this in their households, and not only is a typhoon coming, there is a serial killer on the run. Time to hit the road. And it does for over 3 1/2 hours. I just wanted to drive these characters to a hospital quick. Still, a generous dosing of tranquil hypnosis and gorgeous scenery.