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The Sea Is Watching (2002)

tomatometer

45

Average Rating: 5.6/10
Critic Reviews: 11
Fresh: 5 | Rotten: 6

No consensus yet.

audience

73

liked it
Average Rating: 3.6/5
User Ratings: 1,273

My Rating

Movie Info

Kei Kumai's Umi Wa Miteita (The Sea Watches) has a script written by the late Japanese master Akira Kurosawa. O-Shin (Nagiko Tohno) is a geisha. One day a samurai named Fusanosuke (Hidetaka Yoshioka) appears in her town on the run after having killed a man. She assists him by cutting his hair. The two fall in love, despite the protestations from O-Shin's friend Kikuno (Misa Shimizu). Eventually Fusanosuke leaves, only to return one day and reveal that he is engaged. The second half of the film

R, 1 hr. 59 min.

Drama, Romance, Art House & International

Akira Kurosawa

Nov 18, 2003

Sony Pictures Entertainment

Cast

All Critics (28) | Top Critics (11) | Fresh (15) | Rotten (12) | DVD (4)

It has been directed by Kei Kumai as a film that seems more melodramatic and sentimental than Kurosawa's norm.

October 24, 2003 Comment
Chicago Sun-Times
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Filled with love and melancholy, it's a fitting, fond epilogue to [Kurosawa].

October 23, 2003 Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune | Comment
Chicago Tribune
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I don't think I'm going too far out on a limb by saying the Sea that Kurosawa must have envisioned had to be a whole lot more compelling and focused than the one now delivered by veteran director Kei Kumai.

July 25, 2003 Comment
San Jose Mercury News
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An undistinguished affair.

July 22, 2003 Comment
Hollywood Reporter
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It is a little like following a Jane Austen novel.

July 22, 2003 Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | Comment
San Francisco Chronicle
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The Sea Is Watching most likely wouldn't have made it to New York if not for the Kurosawa connection. That link is also the main reason to see it.

July 22, 2003 Comment
New York Post
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sad and compelling, yet laced with an underlying message of dignity and hope. Perhaps Kumai is no Kurosawa - but I don't know if Kurosawa could have done it much better.

June 7, 2004 Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | Comment
eFilmCritic.com

It's not only worth seeing as "Kurosawa's last story," but also simply as a good, solid drama.

November 19, 2003 Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | Comment
eFilmCritic.com

While this material isn't necessarily up to the standards of Kurosawa's best work, it does warrant at least a look.

October 10, 2003 Full Review Source: Deseret News, Salt Lake City | Comment
Deseret News, Salt Lake City

You could literally hang any random frame on the wall and call it art.

July 27, 2003 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | Comment
TV Guide's Movie Guide

[A]delightful and surprisingly feminist film.

July 22, 2003 Full Review Source: Film Journal International | Comment
Film Journal International

Those who delight in small-scale virtues may find their interest held by the meticulous detail that Kumai lavishes on various Japanese rituals -- everything from pouring tea to holding swords. Everyone else, however, need not check in.

July 22, 2003 Full Review Source: E! Online | Comment
E! Online

[T]here were times when The Sea is Watching bored me. But Kumai and Kurosawa won me back with the final scenes, which are stark and beautiful, and a fitting finale for one of the world's great filmmakers.

July 22, 2003 Comment
Seattle Times

An absorbing slice of a lost world that's actually very reminiscent of Kurosawa's underappreciated 1957 film, The Lower Depths.

July 22, 2003 Full Review Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer | Comment
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for The Sea Is Watching

Long and boring..

September 30, 2010
Saxia

Super Reviewer

Another foreign language film I picked up on a whim--this time because, of course, it was the last script written by Akira Kurosawa.I didn't know whether a Kurosawa script would guarantee a good film (and of course one could always deviate even if the script would near enough guarantee it). It was clearly, from the

May 18, 2008

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