MovieChat Forums > Doraibu mai kâ (2021) Discussion > A masterpiece

A masterpiece

posted 3 years ago by Nostromo (242)
11 replies | jump to latest

An absolute masterpiece from Hamaguchi. A lesson to all in how to direct. The film Inspired me, moved me, shocked me. The entire cast is outrageously good. Especially Hidetoshi Nishijima and Toko Miura as the leads.

A stage director has intriguing relationship with his screenwriter wife, some time later he moves to Hiroshima and assembles a cast to direct a stage version of a Chekov play. What we see unfold is a version of his dealing with the marriage. To say anymore would be a spoiler. But I just hope many people see this , which is surely one of the films of 2021.

It's devastatingly beautiful, complex, has a brilliant screenplay and is just a great film.

[–] actionkamen (23176) 3 years ago

One of the *best films of 2021.

[–] Towelie_Towel (1786) 3 years ago

And I'm not one to be crass.
But how amazing was Oto, the wife - at almost 50 years of age?
Incredible.

[–] actionkamen (23176) 3 years ago

Asians.

[–] Towelie_Towel (1786) 3 years ago

True.

[–] [deleted] 3 years ago

I watched it on demand today. Sorry to say, this didn't do a lot for me. It was far too long and dragged on. I didn't find the story very interesting or engaging. Performances are fine and I liked the cinematography. There's a few good moments here and there, but not enough for me. It's a 6/10 from me.

[–] Arasaid (202) 3 years ago

Odd. Uneven, robotic performances. Bizarre sexual content. Soulless. Could have been much more.
2/10

[–] stickman38 (3439) 3 years ago

Robotic performances might be a good way to describe it. At times, it appears as though everyone is reading their lines from cue cards, which is kind of weird. However, I'm almost certain this was done on purpose to give this movie a stage-play kind of feel to it. In fact, in some scenes, they're literally reading lines for the play they're staring in. So, it kinda makes sense that most of the movie feels like a stage performance rather than something you would see on the silver screen.

I thought it was a very good film, I gotta give it a 7.9 out of 10. If you just want to see something different, you will probably like this. If you can get passed the "stagey" feel it has, you will find a pretty deep philosophical story in this movie. It's quite good...

I'm almost tempted to call it like an Asian Shakespeare tragedy film. The last Asian movie I saw was Parasite and to be honest, I liked Drive My Car more than Parasite.

[–] letess (1827) 3 years ago

I understand what you are saying but I don’t think it’s robotic at all. There are many languages in this movie as well, including signing in Korean. (Do you recall the two that got together - she only spoke Chinese and he only spoke English and Japanese.) I don’t agree at all with the guy/woman above you. Bizarre sexual content??? The sexual content was exceptional. Oto tells a story following sex that is so interesting you want to know more and then when you find out the ending - it is bewitching. Who is coming up the stairs? Two points of view - husband and lover. And then to see the passionate infidelity scene - so revealing. And “soulless” - this movie is all about souls. You can comment on whatever you want about this movie, but soulless is not one of them. How could anybody be so off the mark. Oto and Koji are haunting me long after this movie ended. And Misaki’s mother second personality!

[–] stickman38 (3439) 3 years ago

I didn't mind the varied languages but it's just the way the actors deliver their lines, it seems like they're reading them rather than naturally speaking them. And I'm not talking about the scenes when they really are reading their lines. This seems to happen throughout the whole movie.

But this could be a language thing too...

Since I don't speak the language, it might seem like they're just reading cue cards.

Still a very good movie though...

And agreed, the sex is not bizarre. It actually reminds me of a sex scene in another film I saw a while back called, The Red Violin. There is one sex scene in this movie where ***minor spoiler***

the violin player is drawing inspiration from his sexual experiences with a young woman.

***end spoiler***

Not sure if you've seen this movie but I think it's worth a look. It's free on TubiTV and Pluto right now if you can handle the ads.

But yeah, not sure where that came from. The sex scene is not bizarre. It's actually a very key part of the story.

[–] letess (1827) 3 years ago

I love the scene you mentioned in The Red Violin with Greta Scacchi and Jason Fleming. Love love it. It was the best of all the stories. Letters of poetry music and death do us part.

[–] RichardBlaine (303) 3 years ago

I thought this was a very good film, Nostromo, but, wow, I certainly would not have described it as you have. That's quite a lot of praise.

Performances by the the two leads were outstanding. However, was three hours necessary? It felt as if we saw pretty much all of Chekhov's play with the never-ending rehearsal scenes. I get the parallels between the play and the main character's life, but did I need to be beaten over the head with it? There were quite a lot of scenes, actually, that felt like they went on just a minute or two too long. I kept wanting to say, "Okay, I get it. Next scene, please."

I can't help but wonder how much more powerful this film could have been had it been streamlined to two hours. Less is so often more, and I think this is a textbook case.