To the Ends of the Earth

Critics Consensus

To the Ends of the Earth finds filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa crafting an insightful evocation of the feeling of being far from home.

43%

Audience Score

User Ratings: 7

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Movie Info

Yoko (Atsuko Maeda) hosts a popular global travel show yet is cautious and insular like many young Japanese. But she has a bigger dream. On assignment in Uzbekistan, Yoko and her small TV crew attempt to catch a mythical fish but fail. They also film segments in Samarkand but feel it's lacking. Indifferent to her job, Yoko prefers texting her boyfriend in Tokyo. At night, she comes across a tied up goat and suggests releasing it on camera. The plan goes awry and Yoko feels indignant and naive. The team move to Tashkent where Yoko wanders into an opulent theatre, fantasizing she's on stage. She confides her ambitions to her cameraman but admits her heart's not ready. While filming, Yoko's timid nature inadvertently gets her in trouble with the police. At the station she hears of a disaster in Tokyo and realizes how important human communication truly is. Some of the team return to Japan but Yoko stays. As she ventures into the mountains she sings from the heart and her spirit is freed.

Genre:

drama, foreign
Original Language:

Japanese
Director:

Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Producer:

Jason Gray, Eiko Mizuno Gray, Toshikazu Nishigaya
Runtime:

2h
Production Co:

Loaded Films, Tokyo Theatres K.K., Uzbekkino, King Records

Cast & Crew

Atsuko Maeda
Yoko

Tokio Emoto
Sasaki

Ryô Kase
Iwao

Adiz Rajabov
Temur

Shôta Sometani
Yoshioka

Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Director

Show all Cast & Crew

Critic Reviews for To the Ends of the Earth

More than any film before it, To the Ends of the Earth fully embodies the isolation of culture shock.

December 18, 2020 | Rating: 4/5 | Full Review…

Jenny Nulf
Austin Chronicle
It's a history lesson, yes, but it's also a lesson in basic humanity.

December 18, 2020 | Full Review…

Justin Chang
Los Angeles Times
A movie where gorgeously lit and framed exterior photography, as well as consummately precise body-language-centric performances, often convey more than most dialogue could.

December 11, 2020 | Rating: 3.5/4 | Full Review…

Simon Abrams
RogerEbert.com
Kurosawa's command of film form gives the movie an embracing magnetism despite its seeming thinness of plot.

December 9, 2020 | Full Review…

Glenn Kenny
New York Times
If one persists in calling To The Ends Of The Earth a departure, then one might well marvel at how the Japanese director manages to stake out territory in so many different directions.

December 8, 2020 | Rating: A- | Full Review…

Lawrence Garcia
AV Club
Kiyoshi Kurosawa's contemplative and critical melodrama is a travelogue about a travelogue, a tale of the fabrications of reality TV and their effect on the fabricators.

December 7, 2020 | Full Review…

Richard Brody
New Yorker
...Kiyoshi Kurosawa is one of cinema's finest conductors of emotional experience.

January 22, 2021 | Full Review…

Nathan Smith
Nashville Scene
A film that intrigues and amazes. [Full review in Spanish]

January 4, 2021 | Rating: 4/5 | Full Review…

Luis Fernando Galván
En Filme
That To the Ends of the Earth is a state-sanctioned attempt at commemorating diplomacy makes its artistry that much more impressive.

December 29, 2020 | Full Review…

Soham Gadre
The Spool
Writer-director Kiyoshi Kurosawa has made an indie-film star of the charming Atsuko Maeda. It's a journey into the Uzbekistan of your mind.

December 22, 2020 | Rating: A- | Full Review…

James Verniere
Boston Herald
Best known for his paranormal dramas, Kurosawa has made a thoughtful, gentle movie about cultural divides, tourist disorientation, and a young woman's realization of her potential.

December 18, 2020 | Rating: 3/4 | Full Review…

Anita Katz
San Francisco Examiner
The search for authentic experiences in our over-mediated age can be an elusive one, almost as slippery as this provocative mood piece.

December 17, 2020 | Full Review…

Sean Burns
The ARTery