Himizu (2011)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

A bit overrated, but still an amazing film

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

They need to rewrite the synopsis for this maudlin, over-sentimental cryfest of a film. From the description, I was expecting something exciting like 'Natural Born Killers', 'Bonnie & Clyde' or even 'Baise Moi'. Hell, I would've even settled for a Japanese 'Thelma & Louise' but this movie failed to deliver the goods.If you like to see young teens cry & cry & cry & scream & cry & cry & scream & cry then this movie is for you. Bring a box of tissues, just don't expect to see what the synopsis promised.This was not an action film at all, just an implausible drama with a lot of verbal diatribe to waste your time away. If 14 year old teens really speak with that kind of maturity then I'll eat my shorts.They used to make silly cryfests like these in Hollywood back in the 30's and 40's. Why they chose to reprise the same shtick in Japan is beyond me. People go for this stuff? Even watching a fluorescent lamp flicker is more interesting than 'Himizu.' What a rip.

Okay so this is another Japanese movie based on a Japanese manga. But this movie adds it's own flare to it, instead of trying to be exactly like the manga. Now this might disappoint some hardcore fans of the manga. But personally I liked the direction this movie took, it just went with the more emotional style instead of constant awkward Japanese humor that is in the manga. Not saying this movie is better than the manga or visa versa. It just has a different tone and style going for it. Sure the characters in this are very awkward and does things that doesn't make much sense. But those elements actually work for this movie, sometimes in Japanese movies the awkwardness can go all over the place without being consistent. This movie is actually consistent for the most part. Plus just about all the actors in this did a great job while also bringing out good amount of emotion. And just about all the character are likable for the most part even if what they do doesn't make much sense sometimes. Even some of the effects doesn't make much sense like the music for instance that constantly play classical music, especially from Mozart. But these effects that doesn't make much sense comes together in a consistent package overall. This movie shows that sometimes you can't judge people just by your perception alone but need to be in their shoes to understand since we all come from different background. It also has other messages but that one stood out the most. This is a fine manga adaptation that shows that not everything has to be word for word or frame by frame.7.5/10

Some of you already know I'm a huge fan of Love Exposure, but I hadn't seen anything else from Sono until this, so I was greatly anticipating it. It's set in post-tsunami Japan, and this setting is not only a context but a very important part of the plot, perhaps too much so especially at the ending when the film turns a little into a moralizing or even propaganda piece, with the main character crying "Don't give up!" repeatedly while we see images of the ravages of the flood. I gotta say those last minutes moved me to the verge of tears though, but that has more to do with how it builds up and connects previous elements shown in the film in a rather messy way. But I think that's the Sono way, with quick shots and thoughts put together, unexpected transitions, poetry mixed up with violence, sometimes inscrutable characters... This film also has some powerful cinematography going for it, with thinned down and warm colors, probably with some filter involved or maybe just postproduction grading to create this beautiful effect. Also worthy of notice is the soundtrack, with pieces from Mozart and Barber that enhance the poignancy of the film. So in the end it's a tragic and also hopeful love story, with different situations involved that make true sense only towards the end. It has some disturbing scenes, with parents who want their children dead or people who want to kill other people in the street for no rational reason... Situations that are quite effective in portraying not only the material but also the moral and mental damages that can be caused by such an event as last year's tsunami. Still, it's no match to Love Exposure, and I don't think anything else from Sono is/will be.****

While not a terrible movie, Sumida & Keiko's dystopia where- in after killing his father who beats him up in drunken rages, Sumida embarks on a campaign of violence against evil-doers demonstrates a mismanagement of the time spent on different aspects of the plot.What really occurs, is that the violence between father and son is a surrogate for violence against women done by what are essentially psychotic individuals. This is easily seen in the completely superfluous knife fight over a transit-seat being offered to a pregnant woman. Although the unthinkable does not happen, the tension is sufficient to recognize that the director is "hung-up" on portraying unspeakable violence against the women of the movie.Nonetheless, it is not an overly bloody movie, but the subtitles are not sufficient to provide a proper understanding of the scene where the partially-clad woman with Japanese insults written on her body (in Japanese) -- hings such as "pig" and "bitch", who says "I do this by choice". In other words, she invites being called a "pig" as part of being the female in her relationship, where she literally walks around with a chain on her ankle.I would not go so far as to call the movie unwatchable in its treatment of women, although there were some loud "boos" at the screening I went to, eventually there was some applause at the end. To appreciate the movie, one must come to the understanding that each and every character in the movie is not just involved in a movie about angst, but is quite literally insane, or in the language of psychiatrists, "in a deep psychosis".I would not go so far as to call the director psychotic, but rather, lacking the plot time-management skill to convince us otherwise.Unless you're a psychiatrist in a super-max prison, this movie is not escapism, and the assertion that people in Japan need a cynical criticism of the "Let's go Japan!" rebuilding mantra in their media, that the director presents, can quite safely be tossed in the trash.My advice to the director: Move to Osaka.