Great visuals, story delivers no surprises

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

A very sentimental film about eternal love. After the unexpected loss of his wife while on vacations to the Baltic sea, Rudi goes to Japan to escape from his sadness, to his son's house Karl, in Tokyo. Days pass with the memories of his beloved wife Trudi, but also exploring the big city. Lost in the lights of skyscrapers at night, at day staying most of the time in the small apartment, occupied by simple housekeeping, life seems so unbearable for the lost in the bitter shadows of memories husband, until one day at the park with the blossomed cherries, he meets Yu - a young girl playing pantomime. Impressed by her slow and ritual movements, he goes closer to her and they soon become friends. But this was not to last. In a journey to mount Fuji, waiting for the mountain to be revealed to them every morning, when opening the window, days where passing. This reveal was to happen at his last day - to see the mountain with it's snowy pick. He then, moves closer to the lake, where the majestic mountain was reflected and then came to his eyes the image of himself dancing the ritual movements of the Japanese dance (Butoh) with his wife - together and forever. And immediately then, came the moment to die, by the side of the lake. A very touching film of the eternal love, but also a really true study of the contemporary way of living, which can not offer the real essence of life, to human beings. Between loss, sorrow, the lights and furor of a big city, the company of his somehow distant son - absent all day to his work, the salvation of the soul of the unlucky widower, came by the Japanese girl, dancing with the movements of the human body shadows - which means the movements of the inner unsatisfied, waiting for salvation soul. All active elements of the movie especially direction, cinematography, acting photography, music, filming locations, contributed to a very satisfying evolution of the plot above.

I can't begin to describe how much this film moved me. After nearly losing my spouse, best friend and soul mate, I could relate to the crushing emotions of both Trudi and Rudi. Life stands still when you're faced with the realization of living without that person. In 2009 my husband was diagnosed with cancer, and it crushed me. The way Trudi tried to hide her tears, how she couldn't sleep or eat, and her painful realization that each moment with him might be the last were things I experienced firsthand. I can't imagine the added of burden of trying to keep it from him and act as if nothing were wrong. I failed miserably as a strong, supportive caretaker.Many of the things Rudi went through were similar to what I imagined my life would become if he didn't make it. One of the things that really struck me was the portrayal of how seemingly mundane, everyday events become vivid and painful reminders of what was and what you desperately wish you still had. A beautiful movie, a work of art.

This is a beautiful film exploring the contrast of day to day existence with glimpses of the eternal. The death of Trudi gives Rudi an opportunity to learn more about his wife, learn things he wouldn't have known were it not for her death. Not yet able to let her go, Rudi accompanies Trudi's spirit to Japan, to be with her and the things she loved. In spending time with both, he quickly fills the emptiness left by her death. Through Butoh, he is slowly able to let go, by hanging on only gently. The Cherry Blossoms represent the impermanence of things, the loss of loved ones, the meeting of strangers...all stops along an ephemeral world. Mount Fuji, shy, yet mighty, represents the eternal. A contrast of the letting go, and holding on in memory. Even the things we thought we knew, our way of life, our children, our spouse, ourselves.... they may one day be strangers to us..but changing...may one day be again known.

Ugh... just plain ugh... why was the first 48 mins. of this film made? The director has an Ozu fetish, plainly, as they think nothing of wasting days trying to replicate the rich tapestry of Tokyo Story with an ill-disguised impatience and far less talent. Is it intended to be a critique of Ozu's work? I doubt it, the filmmakers I say do not have the courage to do such a thing. S/he even attempts to replicate Ozu's signature 'pillow shots' with far far less patience, using paranoid schizophrenic editing where it is plainly uncalled for. The actors struggle gamely on with their roles oblivious to the fact they're repeating lines already immortalized (seriously, I was reading the EXACT same subtitles every three minutes). What is missing? Ozu's deft comic touch, command of the stage and sparse use of melodrama to make a heartfelt critique of Japanese society. Instead at every turn we are to be bludgeoned by melodrama. And then the 48mins. are over and we have a side trip to Japan as clichéd as anything done previously (look for Kurosawa's Ikiru). And why must all foreigners in Japan look on askance at the Japanese pornographic manga? It seems a must for all Japanese movies, maybe I'll write in to Ebert's Movie Glossary with this one. The five stars are for the acting (which still can't save a scene where the old man dissolves into tears after looking at a magazine in his son's Tokyo apartment) and some attempt at Independence in the second half of the movie, despite how clichéd it may be.