A Scene at the Sea (1991)

Did you people see the same film I saw?

Boring, over-political, tech fuzed mess

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

This film shows that sensitive side of Takeshi Kitano's films. He can really create some beautiful and atmospheric scenes. Sadly, this film didn't have enough to amaze me. I know many people say this is an absolutely beautiful film, and while I cannot deny the beauty of some scenes, it can drag a lot a feel dull at times.My main issue was with the main characters. It's supposed to be a love story, but I just didn't feel their connection was believable. It was as if we are expected to see them sitting beside each other day after day as some kind of big romantic connection. Now I understand that he is deaf and, while it sometimes seems like she isn't, the girl is deaf too, making this silent and beautiful connection appear. But I just at times felt like they just happened to beside each-other. They barely ever make any eye contact. You never truly feel that silent love for each other. It felt similar to how when Takeshi Kitano is acting, he has a stone face, but in the case of these characters it doesn't work. Kitano can do his usual emotionless face yet somehow convey a character underneath that face with emotions. The two leads in this cannot do that, and it hurts the film greatly. The film also suffers from being extremely repetitive. We see people walking down the same road numerous times, see the same surfing scenes again and again without any noticeable differences. I wouldn't have minded if you we're seeing him improve his surfing skills each time, but I felt like he didn't really. Even at the end he seemed... okay. His surfing was just good. I didn't know whether that was the point or if he was supposed to actually look really good at it. The surfing feels pointless if there is not a big change in skill. I just felt like I watched a movie about two deaf people who sit around and don't look at each other, and on of them becomes mediocre at surfing. Although I will say the soundtrack is amazing. The music gave me the feelings that I wish the characters would have. It helped add emotional impact to scenes that, without the aid of Joe Hisaishi's score, would have been dull. Kitano also gives us some great shots to take in and enjoy, but the repetition of a lot of them can wear on you.In the end, it has some beautiful scenes, but just doesn't cut it. I wish I could have loved this, because Kitano can do some amazingly touching stuff, but it didn't hit my buttons in the right way.

In one of the few films that he directed but did not star in, Kitano Takeshi tells the story of a young deaf couple. Shigeru, Claude Maki, spends his days working for a trash collecting service and the rest of his time with his petite girlfriend Takako. Cut off from his co-workers because of his inability to speak or hear, Shigeru is often the victim of his coworkers' good-natured pranks. However, others emphasize his otherness when they chuck rocks at him to get his attention. They worry little about injuring him and only state that he won't get mad. While no one deserves the treatment that Shigeru receives, he is far from a warm person himself. Besides a few rare occasions in which he shows warmth, Shigeru is quite cold to those around him and he is especially cold at some points to his girlfriend Takako who, in her silent way, pours out her affection for her tall, wavy haired boyfriend.Stuck in this monotonous world, Shigeru seems to be ready to live out his days, however, one day, he discovers a "Blue Bunny" surfboard on his trash route and this event adds a spark to his life. Without a wetsuit and with his girlfriend in tow, Shigeru begins to teach himself how to search. Criticized by the local beach bums at first, Shigeru soon earns their respect through his persistent nature and dedication to surfing. However, even though it seems that Shigeru and Takako have been accepted into this small circle of friends, can Shigeru truly be part of it or shall he remain confined in his silent world? One thing that truly draws me to Kitano's is the remarkable amount of care and tenderness that is infused in their filmic worlds. In Hana-bi the often brutal Nishi cares for his ailing wife tenderly in a silent way and in Kikujiro, the abrasive protagonist, along with an assorted group of oddballs, look after a young boy who is looking for his mother. These scenes are not overly sappy, well maybe Kikujiro can be at times, and are quite moving. In A Scene at the Sea these scenes rest mainly with Oshima Hiroko's character Takako. By folding his clothes on the beach while he is surfing and refusing to sit on the bus when he is unable to board it with his surfboard, Takako displays her affection and care for Shigeru. These scenes are quite touching in this nearly silent film. Another Kitano film beautifully scored by Hisaishi Joe, A Scene at the Sea might not be for those more interested in Kitano films such as Violent Cop and Boiling Point, but, like Dolls, this is an important film in perceiving the director's overall scope of film.

I'm a big fan of Takeshi Kitano's work, and I feel this film is his best. Whilst films like Hana-bi, Kids return, and Sonatine may have all the idiosyncratic traits that have made Takeshi so critically acclaimed, they all rely on extremities to convey their message. In the case of 'Ano natsu, ichiban shizukana umi', the director has excelled himself by retaining all the interesting and original traits of his more graphic films, yet managing to tell a story that is just as deep and provocative, only to a more subtle degree.The story tells of a young, deaf, disenchanted garbage-collector who one day finds a ruined surf-board lying amidst some rubbish. This inspires the boy to become a great surfer, and with the help of a young deaf girl, he gradually becomes more skillful as time progresses, their love blossoming during the course of the movie.The camera work is extremely sedate and enveloping, managing to capture the calmness of the sea. The characters do not speak, yet the story never seems to drag at all, with each scene drawing the viewer steadily into this very attractive and insular world that they inhabit. The music, scored by Joe Hisiashi, has a very static, timeless quality to it - a mixture of marimba, synthesisers, piano & string instruments manage to convey the atmosphere of the film exceedingly well, with the main theme song capturing the extremely melancholy feel of the film.This is one of the most beautiful, haunting films you will ever see.

Slow-moving, poetic outing for Takeshi Kitano, better known as Beat Takeshi. He forsakes the violence of his more popular films and instead delivers a warm, curious story about a deaf mute who develops a love of surfing. The characters are involving, the scenes are beautifully shot, and the score is magical - but for all that, this isn't an entire success, with a thin plot and a sense of pace which errs just a tad too much on the leisurely side. It's a welcome change to mindless shoot-em-ups, and an interesting addition to the Kitano canon, but it's not top-notch.