hyped garbage

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

The simple story of simple folks living far apart from each other and from vastly different cultures. Reminiscent of some of the old Satyajit Ray movies. As others have stated, the setting and the acting by all the major players, especially of Rahul Bose, keeps one glued to it. Highly recommend this one

Explaining this movie, The Japanese Wife, won't be so easy – such are all films that aim to bridge barriers, break walls and create a new realm of understanding, based on a newly discovered perception of a common ground that's always been there, but was kept unnoticed for some unknown reason.Released in April 2010, the movie clearly attempts to link two worlds, and not just the commonly known main stream version of these worlds, but goes deeper, touches the underlining matter that makes up the society of both cultures, the Indian and the Japanese. Shows life the way it really is, not the way it is being fed off the screen - a long lasting trend in the modern mass media.Shows how love can go by without a physical element. Doesn't deny the need of a physical contact yet achieves a neat balance and doesn't distort the image of platonic love.It is also a story of selfless service to the loved ones and the community, a sacrifice and a lesson of priorities, telling you what really matters. Because of one man's commitment and dedication, and his insider's link into 'all things Japanese', something beautiful and memorable happened in a far away Indian village.With a hint of humor, this love story nearly lands you inside a tearful tragedy, stripping you off a so needed explanation of what happened out there. And then in the matter of seconds you fly on the wings of hope towards the light that only true love can bring you to.There is an undeniable charm in the way this story floats from one corner of the Earth to another. A word should also be said about one striking feature that some might still find subject to a profound neglect - the source of strength, coming from the feminine spirit, overtaking and inspiring. The power of women.Filled with passion, the story is narrated in a very calm and simplistic way. Yes, somewhat minimalistic too. Tells how little we need to be happy. The makers of this movie managed to create an impression of haiku , with character's reflections captured almost in slow motion, so that the viewer can pause and gaze and allow the touchdown to happen within one's heart. But, like is the case with all haiku, worded, painted or now filmed, it often goes unappreciated and misunderstood, and always takes time to sink in. Not every one might find it immediately thrilling and amazing. Yet, in the end, it is.And so is the final verdict – definitely worth it.

A self-billed "love poem" by Aparna Sen.The movie concerns itself with Snehamoy (Rahul Bose), a Bengali schoolteacher and his Japanese penpal Miyage (Chigusa Takaku). Eventually, they declare themselves married. However, Snehamoy finds that being married to a woman merely through correspondence isn't as easy as he thought.I did everything I could to ignore the sheer preposterousness of the basic premise. The movie never explained how did Snehamoy even met Miyage; there never was a personal encounter between them. The two characters are incredibly shy people; Snehamoy lives with his aunt who is the world to him and Miyage with her mother.The movie's story is told primarily with Snehamoy and Miyage narrating their letters to one-another in heavily-accented English; you know it is the native tongue of neither, so they both keep dictionaries handy when writing letters to one-another. The movie surrounds Snehamoy, so you know everything there is to know about him, and next to nothing about Miyage besides what she writes in her letters to Snehamoy.The movie also had a subplot where a widowed woman (who Snehamoy's aunt once tried to engage him to) and her son move into Snehamoy's house. It was vaguely hinted that Snehamoy and this woman had feelings for each other, but the way their relationship was handled was clumsy at best and bore little to no consequence to overall plot.In fact, that, like many scenes in the movie, kind of felt like it was merely added to pad the movie's length. Another scene that comes to mind is the "kite fighting" scene where Snehamoy pitted Japanese kites that Miyage sent him against local Indian ones. I simply failed to see what implications that scene held for the rest of the movie.Well, the big problem with the story that I was simply bored out of my mind, despite The Japanese Wife being only about 100 minutes long. The characters completely failed to engage me and I pretty much felt that there really was no point to the story. Moreover, every time the movie attempted to elicit some sort of emotion, be it laughter or tears, it totally fell flat on its face.To add insult to injury, Rahul Bose's acting was probably the worst I have seen in recent memory in a movie that was not a Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode. The supporting cast does a generally passable job, but Bose had so much screen time that he was simply impossible to ignore. Of course, having to read a rather lame script didn't exactly help matters.What I did appreciate was the movie's attempt to sort of be multicultural by giving lessons of Japanese culture (to an ostensibly largely Indian audience) at the beginning, but even then that was something the movie just sort of abandoned.Aparna Sen is known for doing rather artsy-fartsy low budget Bengali movies. I personally feel that they often wound up making it obvious how totally in love with themselves they are, and The Japanese Wife was no exception; I think the disc label calling the movie a "love poem" is indicative of that. I couldn't help but feel that Aparna Sen was almost over my shoulder saying, "Of course my movie is great! If you don't like it, that makes you a dumb gorilla incapable of appreciating real art!" I love indie films because most of the ones I have seen truly hold artistic merit, and that simply was not the case here.The movie began with a massive real showing a list of corporations that helped fund this movie. This is the first time I've heard of a pen company helping finance a movie; I felt that this list was shown at the beginning for one of two reasons:1. Sen wanted to say, "Look! We didn't have the money, but these corporations, EVEN A PEN COMPANY, saw what a great movie this would be and helped us bring this piece of art to life!"2. Or they knew not too many people would bother waiting to see all of the end credits to get to a "Special Thanks" list, so they might was well show it at the beginning.OK, it was a functional movie and a lot of effort was put into it, but TJW simply missed the mark. Unless you're suffering from insomnia and need a cure, you're better off watching something else. The Japanese Wife was simply extremely mediocre instead of being "so bad it's good".

Before you decide to watch this movie on DVD, there is something you might want to know. The subtitles are in difficult to read font and are yellow, and at times, they are a bit hard to read. It's hard to imagine that the people distributing the film would do such a haphazard job of captioning the film--and it's a shame.The plot of this film is a lot like the Anne Bancroft/Anthony Hopkins film, "84 Charing Cross Road" in that it is told through a very long series of letters back and forth between the male and female lead. Despite having a very strong attachment, the male and female leads go for many years without seeing each other! Muyage is a woman living in Japan. Snehamoy is a Bengali man living in India and most of the film is shown from his perspective. They are pen pals and through the course of the film they exchange many letters which are narrated for the audience. Over time, they fall in love but cannot do much about it, as they are both poor. Yet, because they are so painfully shy, they do not see anyone in their own country. Eventually they hit on the idea of getting married--though they still have not actually met...and even after their marriage (there is no actual ceremony) they do not meet! Years pass this way as they exchange letters and grow separately...yet together.Problems arise, however, when a widow and her young son move in with him and his aunt. After all, this widow is the same lady that the aunt tried to get Snehamoy to marry years earlier. She, like Snehamoy, is painfully shy...but you can also very slowly see something might be blossoming between them...very, very slowly. And, you can also see the young boy beginning to bond more and more with Snehamoy--seeing him as a bit of a father figure. In the meantime, Miyage becomes ill--so ill that Snehamoy is worried she will die, so he takes off time from work and runs from doctor to healer to try to get them to diagnose a woman living 3600 miles from India (trust me, I recently measured it)! What will become of these nice people? Overall, I was very impressed by the very slow and deliberate pace of the film. It was obviously a labor of love, though some might be a bit put off by the very restrained and emotionally constricted acting. It is a film about people--not about action or great displays of emotion. As a result, I assume many, if not most viewers (who are unfortunately boobs) probably will not enjoy the film very much and much of the film's beauty and artistry will be lost on them. Yes, I am apparently a snob and assume the worst of many viewers--especially teens and the chronically dumb. But, if you are willing to watch such a film, give this one a try. It's original (despite its similarity to this other film) and engaging...if you give it a chance. Just be forewarned, this film, at times, is rather heart-breaking--it's not a predictable romantic feel-good film. Seriously...think about this before picking this film.By the way, there was one aspect of the film I did NOT love. Seeing the male lead apparently masturbating in one scene was kind of yucky. No, they didn't show this but it was clear this was occurring. I did, however, like a scene soon after this where you THINK this is occurring...but it isn't. That's pretty clever.