Japanese Story | | Cast : | Toni Collette, Gotaro Tsunashima, Lynette Curran | | Director : | Sue Brooks | | Studio : | Columbia Tristar Hom | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby | | Released Date : | January 01, 2003 | | DVD Released Date : | May 11, 2004 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), English (Original Language), English (Subtitled) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | July 27, 2005 | | Summary | Collette Too Good for Minimalist Road Romance | Content
 | I like Toni Collette. With her toothy grin, feline eyes and wide-open manner, she steals scenes in others' movies with ease. This time she is center stage and quite wonderful as Sandy Edwards, a tough-acting Australian geologist who must chauffeur a prospective client, the son of a rich Japanese industrialist, deep into the Pilbara region of Western Australia. As she proves with a couple of key scenes here, she is an actor who can express fear and emotional pain with a vanity-free, visceral ferocity that is almost frightening to witness for the nakedness of her expression. I just wish this 2003 movie was worth her effort. Director Sue Brooks and screenwriter Alison Tilson have fashioned a cross-cultural love story/road movie that seems to be grasping at something stylistically minimalist and emotionally resonant. It seems to be the inverse of "Crocodile Dundee" with a pinch of Nicolas Roeg's "Walkabout" in the desert sequence and a heavy dollop of Sofia Coppola's "Lost in Translation" in the relationship department. However, the filmmakers fall short in integrating the plot elements into something powerful, and the one surprising twist in the storyline doesn't really help set the movie on the right path.
Having just seen a couple of Yasujiro Ozu's minimalist masterworks from the 1950's, "Tokyo Story" and "Early Summer", I can tell what Brooks and Tilson are trying to do here, and that is present a story of self-discovery that evolves not by defining moments but by mood and insinuation. Unfortunately, whereas Ozu could do this with dexterity and unexpected emotive force, "Japanese Story" just seems cryptic and lugubrious, especially in the anticlimactic last half-hour which seems endless. The movie is also burdened by the seemingly deliberate overuse of cultural stereotypes, for example, Tachibana Hiromitsu, the young Japanese executive, is sexist and patronizing, gets drunk in a karaoke bar, speaks little English (or makes little attempt at the beginning), and becomes too embarrassed to call for help when a dire situation arises. Sandy is frankly no more flattering a portrait of an Australian, as she is brusque, short-tempered and without etiquette. It becomes clear the initial set-up of a software sale has been jettisoned in favor of the plot contrivance of putting them together. They, of course, become attracted to each other, but there is no credible explanation for this development because the emotional and physical attraction seems more symbolic than anything else, especially in an odd scene where her more masculine frame towers over his seemingly more fragile body.
Gotaro Tsunashima plays Hiromitsu for what the role is worth, which isn't much in the script since he is designed to be a cipher for much of the story. Nobody else makes much of an impression here, though I have to admit I was put off by the way his wife is portrayed so predictably and embodied by a stoic china-doll actress named Yumiko Tanaka. I also can't believe the film uses the hoary device of a voiceover letter at the end, and Elizabeth Drake's repetitive, Asian-twanged music score becomes more irritating by the second. Nonetheless, the travelogue aspects are nice with Western Australia looking stunning thanks to cinematographer Ian Baker. And there is always Collette who makes the best of her circumstances. I'm looking forward to her next starring vehicle and hopeful that she can leverage her immense talent into something more substantial than this. Brooks, Tilson and producer Sue Maslin provide informative commentary on an alternative track on the DVD, and there are a couple of deleted scenes intriguing in that they seem to provide much needed context for the film. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 02, 2005 | | Summary | Film evokes mixed feelings | Content
| Set against the vast, unrelenting Australian outback, this film explores an intercultural relationship. The brash Australian geologist versus the cultured Japanese businessman. They spar with each other as they set out on a road trip. Disaster and overcoming hardship draws them together.
The resulting romantic scene seemed strangely detached to me. As they continue on their trek, the relationship warms up, but still seems offbeat.
Again disaster strikes and the last part of the film focuses on the Australian and her interaction with the Japanese wife. The raw feelings portrayed by the Australian actress are painful to watch.
I felt quite mixed up by the early "odd couple" humor, the mismatched romance in the center and the tragic ending. The scenery, of course, was outstanding all the way through! |
| Rating | | | Date | April 05, 2005 | | Summary | A different story | Content
| This film either hits you emotionally or it completely misses. Maybe it's that the film is, essentially, two films that divide at the second act midpoint. In the first part, the film is about a rather typical Australian woman, self-possessed, macho, brusque and unabashed. She is a geologist who wants to sell her software to a Japanese businessman who is there to see an iron ore operation that his family partly owns. The woman, played by the changeling genius Toni Collette, drives the Japanese businessman (Gotaro Tsunashima) into the outback to survey the mines. They get stuck out in a very bad spot in the desert and ultimately, by working together, manage to get themselves free. It has been a life and death situation, and the exhilaration of the success makes them both giddy.
Collette, a rough-handed Aussie gal, is quite curious and even intoxicated by this very handsome and exquisitely delicate man, so foreign to her. They begin an affair. Then midway through, there is a drastic event that changes everything. The rest of the film is devoted to the aftermath of this event.
This movie moves slowly, too slowly for some. And there seem to be some rather wild swings in Collette's character and some huge lapses (a real Australian would never go into the outback without a second car in the group, satellite phone, etc). But I bought into Collette's character's strange arc. Maybe it's her extraordinary talent that worked for me, I don't know, but the film packed a strong emotional wallop for me. I had my doubts when the car got stuck because it's just so absurd that any experienced Aussie would ever get into that situation, but I let it go. Ultimately, I was rewarded for that suspension of disbelief. |
| Rating | | | Date | April 03, 2005 | | Summary | Not so much about different cultures as you might think | Content
| I am much drawn to movies or books explaining the Japanese experience to Western spectators and readers; this is usually done by means of discussing one Western encounter with the Japanese culture. Examples of this kind could be the French movie "Stupor and Bewilderment" or books such as "My year of meats". I was therefore looking forward to this movie as a special treat; a movie that will cast a little more light on the very intriguing Japanese culture.
This is not a bad movie, but left me nevertheless with a confused feeling. What did I miss? I felt I should have understood more and did not grasp the whole of it. Or maybe what you see is what you get: vacation romance between two different people, a lovely background, and an inner journey each one of them makes into his own soul.
My first conclusion therefore is that this is not a movie about different cultures moving closer, as I expected. Truly this is not a regular movie and the story moves along very differently from what you expect. The journey is not made between two cultures (Japanese and Australian) but is more a journey of one person to his inner self. This is more a statement about a cosmpolite human experience, power of nature and human compassion, or so I understand it.
The Australian desert is a lovely background for a very interesting developing relationship between the Australian Sandy (played by Tony Collete, and the main reason to watch this movie) and the Japanese Hirumitsu played by Gotaro Tsunashima.
The Pilbara desert is breathtaking and Tony collte is a brilliant actress (first noticed in " Muriel's Wedding "). The Japanese actor did not manage however to touch me in any way. If it is merely an intention to present him in this way - as somone very reserved and close - I cannot say. It basically seems that there was more of a Western influence on the Japanese visitor then the other way around. The nature and the Australian guide did influence him. The heroine remains outspoken and displays her feelings in a manner, which the Japanese termed vulgar in the beginning. But again, this does not seem to be the main issue but more her change towards some understanding of herself.
In spite of the splendid actress this is not a very strong movie and its statements are not always clear.
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| Rating | | | Date | March 26, 2005 | | Summary | Good acting, lovely scenery | Content
| The story isn't original: two people from different backgrounds have a brief and tragic romance. But it has great acting and lovely Australian scenery. Good, but not great movie. |
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