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Japanese Story (2004)
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Reviews Counted: 87
Fresh: 58
Rotten:29
Average Rating: 6.4/10
Consensus: An emotional film where Toni Collette gets to show her impressive range.
Theatrical Release:Dec 31, 2003 Limited
Box Office: $189,209
Synopsis: This romantic drama stars Toni Collette as Sandy, a high-strung Australian geologist assigned to escort Japanese businessman Hirotmitsu (Gotaro Tsunashima) on a tour through the outback. Ostensibly... This romantic drama stars Toni Collette as Sandy, a high-strung Australian geologist assigned to escort Japanese businessman Hirotmitsu (Gotaro Tsunashima) on a tour through the outback. Ostensibly he's there to visit the various mines his company co-owns, but his real motives are mysterious and soon he is urging her to drive deep into the middle of the Pilabra Desert. A mutual dislike for one another, enhanced by vast cultural differences keep them at arm's length at first, but when their jeep gets mired in sand in the middle of nowhere, their fight for survival leads them towards a deep human connection. They find themselves falling in love as they drift aimlessly amidst the desolate beauty of the area, but soon comes a sudden, unexpected shock. Written by Alison Tilson and directed by Sue Brooks, JAPANESE STORY explores the distances between cultures, people, and the vast emptiness of Australia's interior regions. Yet even the spectacular desert scenery can't compete with Collette's complex stunner of a performance. Suntanned, tender, gutsy and raw, she plumbs frighteningly real depths of emotion and vulnerability. Tsunashima is also excellent, bringing simplicity and grace to an enigmatic role. [More]
Starring: Toni Collette, Gotaro Tsunashima, Lynette Curran, Yumiko Tanaka
Starring: Toni Collette, Gotaro Tsunashima, Lynette Curran, Yumiko Tanaka, Matthew Dyktynski
Director: Sue Brooks
Director: Sue Brooks
Screenwriter: Allison Tilson
Producer: Magnus Mansie
Composer: Elizabeth Drake
Studio: Samuel Goldwyn Films
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Reviews for Japanese Story
Despite an uninspiring first half, the film delivers a strong emotional impact in its final reels.**
An underdeveloped film that requires all of [Collette's] ample skills merely to rise to the mediocre.
Lots of pictures begin strongly only to lose their focus; this one gains momentum with every sequence -- ambivalent at first, we're firmly hooked by the final frame.
Tsunashima gives a deft performance in a role that starts out as caricature but becomes full-bodied. Collette commands the screen virtually the entire time.
Mixing cultural comedy, survival tension, unlikely romance and an extreme about turn, it's a moving and unusual film.
A raw emotional journey in which character is everything -- although the scenery is spectacular.
Japanese Story gives Australian actress Toni Collette a chance to demonstrate the full range of her acting skills in a cross-cultural tale filled with many surprises.
The film acts as a tale of human strengths and frailty as well as a barometer of cultural diversity.
The conflict ... is all internal, and that's the problematic conceit on which Japanese Story turns.
Starts off promisingly. Eventually, though, it collapses into melodrama.
An embarrassing bit of housewife Orientalism erotica... that easily could be summarized by Monty Python's "I Like Chinese" song.
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