... It's been done many times before, in many different ways, but none quite like Japanese Story.
She, Sandy, is a brash, brazen geologist. "Large arse, blue eyes" as she's described in the film. Short crop of hair, something of an attitude problem. Even when she's at home of an evening she ... Read review
To those around her, Sandy is the archetypal Australian woman - bold, brash, confident and ... more
up to any challenge. But when she is charged with playing tour guide to a Japanese businessman who is a potential investor in her company, it is not a task she relishes.Driving across the vast Australian outback, cultural and personal differences make for an uncomfortable ride. Hiromitsu's uncommunicative manner and sexist comments irritate Sandy, but she must keep her feelings to herself if she is to prevent offending her company's guest. For Hiromitsu, Sandy is everything that he finds unappealing about western women - she is loud, aggressive and headstrong. However, they soon find they are attracted to each other, and an unusual and intense relationship develops.Beautifully observed, emotionally-charged and full of unforeseen surprises, this unique film features a blistering performance from Toni Collette (Muriel's Wedding, The Sixth Sense, The Hours) and was a huge international box office and critical success.
Production Year: 2004 - Drama - Director: John Duigan - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Charlize Theron, Stuart Townsend, Penelope Cruz
Production Year: 2004 - Drama - Director: Nick Cassavetes - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over, 12 years and over - Starring: Rachel McAdams, Ryan Gosling, Gena Rowlands
Advantages: Toni Collette at her best in outback effort Disadvantages: Perhaps a slow ending
...ways, but none quite like Japanese Story.
She, Sandy, is a brash, brazen geologist. "Large arse, blue eyes" as she's described in the film. Short crop of hair, something of an attitude problem. Even when she's at home of an evening she hardly relaxes - just puts the most basic meal together - beans from the pan, with lettuce thrown at toast.
He is a rich, smart, somewhat uptight Japanese chap. His English is ... ...seems to be the stereotypical Japanese businessman, whose kow-towing has grown into a ridiculous business card swapping ceremony.
He also might have a stereotypical attitude to women, for all we know. It falls on her to drive him from place to place in the outback, to look at mines, offices, places where nice rocks came from... She knows this isn't a good idea, and often tells him so, but ends up stuck with the job.
What we have here is a tale of two opposites who meet, dislike each other, fall in love, and that's it. It's been done many times before, in many different ways, but none quite like Japanese Story.
She, Sandy, is a brash, brazen geologist. "Large arse, blue eyes" as she's described in the film. Short crop of hair, something of an attitude problem. Even when she's at home of an evening she hardly relaxes - just puts the most basic meal together - beans from the pan, with lettuce thrown at toast.
He is a rich, smart, somewhat uptight Japanese chap. His English is good enough, but he hardly says much to begin with apart from a ubiquitous "Hai!", which can mean almost anything he likes, it seems. He seems to be the stereotypical Japanese businessman, whose kow-towing has grown into a ridiculous business card swapping ceremony.
He also might have a stereotypical attitude to women, for all we know. It falls on her to drive him from place to place in the outback, to look at mines, offices, places where nice rocks came from... She knows this isn't a good idea, and often tells him so, but ends up stuck with the job.
And, before long, they end up with the car stuck in the sand in the middle of absolutely nowhere. From here the two polar opposites begin to stick to each other, and you might want to try and guess the rest...
With this widescreen DVD an awful lot of the scenery looks far too small - the cinema must have been a great place to view this film. But even on the small screen certain elements come through. For the director hasn't focussed on the red and green outback as much as two excellent performances.
Toni Collette, still standing her ground as an actress for directors who want an actress instead of a star, is superb. Her character goes through a huge journey in this film - and nothing like the out-of-love to in-love trip you might get in a romcom. Every emotion is shown brilliantly with her face, from a sallow mouth (meaning pretty much anything - "Hai!") to her eyes. When the couple finally get together there's an intensity in her gaze on him you'd be lucky to find in real life, let alone in Hollywood.
Gotaro Tsunashima as Hiromitsu is an excellent find. You won't know the name, and it was his first film, but his performance is just as good, even if perhaps seemingly a little easier - quieter, less showy, and so on - just like the character. (He has also been described as very good looking.)
It is pretty much a two-hander, but all the characters in the background are fine. There's the friends - sorry, colleagues - Sandy has in the various offices, and other people who get involved on the return from the trip into the desert. An added depth is given by the cameo of a boatman who describes how the Australians tend to feel about the Japanese, but race politics is pretty much left out of the story.
What story there is is of a much higher class than the usual romcom effort. Alison Tilson, with her first major screenplay, measures it just right, especially with the forceful characters coming together. Details are delivered at the right times - such as Hiro's connections back home. The two characters barely touch until half-way through the film, and when they do start it seems a little too late.
This is a bit of a weepie, by the way.
Tilson's regular colleague, Sue Brooks - again, nothing of hers will have come your way before - is of course helped by a good cast and good scenery, but does an excellent job. If memory serves, some of the critics weren't too keen on the film's seeming simplicity and opposites attract storyline, but bah to them. The last section might be a little too slow and long, but otherwise there's nothing to fault. The humour is finely balanced; the music very memorable but never forced upon you.
Japanese Story is a great tale, told not by idiots at all, and signifying a lot - a major future for the makers if all goes well.
The DVD comes, as said, in widescreen, with three audio set-ups available. The commentary comes in the set-up section of menu, and not the extras, for some reason. This features the author, director and producer all commenting, in a far too cosy and friendly way - there's no edge to the opinion, no surprise in the information.
The same three women appear in a filmed Q&A session. This, plus the one deleted scene - also with optional voiceover for a brief detail on why it was dropped - and the trailer, all give the whole plot of the film away, but you wouldn't want to be watching them first anyway - and most probably not for a second time either.
All this means that the film is just as well watched when broadcast, as when bought, but it's not exactly dear - £4 on amazon now. It'd be a great one to show off your huge plasma screen with, should you be lucky enough. But then, it's a great one full stop.
...I sat down to watch Japanese Story. Everything I had read on it suggested I would be getting a typical culture clash comedy-drama. As such, it was very refreshing to find something very different.
Although Japanese Story does indeed start off along these lines, it does so well, and Collette and Tsunashima are excellent as the leads who despite being somewhat cold toward each other at first, eventually warm to each other. This is all handled beautifully, ... ...film enviroment of overdone cliches and safe stories.
Japanese Story isn't for everyone, so if you're only really interested in the typical Hollywood blockbuster fare, you'd probably do well to avoid it, but for anyone looking for a little more depth in their films, I would wholeheartedly recommend it. ...
eddie7sf 25.06.2004
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Japanese Story (DVD)
Advantages: Beautifully shot, great performance from Toni Colette Disadvantages: I couldn't see any
...will end up "babysitting" a Japanese businessman Hiromitsu (played by Gotaro Tsunashima). Sandy is not happy about this, to say the least.... but does it as she wants to try and sell Hiromitsu a new software. Hiromitsu isn't interested in any software, all he wants is to see the Australian desert. Their relationship doesn't look set to improve as he speaks little English and she doesn't speak any Japanese. But because of him, they end up being stuck ... ...differences aside to be able to get out of this very sticky situation. This will bring them closer. But this is not an "hapilly ever after" type of movie, and I don't want to spoil it for you but if you go and see this movie make sure that you'll bring with you one or two tissues (or if you are anything like me bring the whole box with you!!).
The actors are absolutely amazing, especially Colette, but what impressed me the most was the Pilbara desert. ...
Estelle999 29.06.2004
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Japanese Story (DVD)
Advantages: Not too long and some beautiful Australian scenery Disadvantages: None
...Forced to ferry around a Japanese businessman (Gotaro Tsunashima) as he inspects his company's investment, Sandy Edwards (Toni Collette) finds herself being won over by his unique culture and personality.
What follows is a cross between romantic drama and romantic comedy, played out beautifully by the 2 lead characters. In fact, these two genres aren't intermixed at all, but rather swapped out at a pivotal moment in the film. This comes as an incredible ... ...This is such a beautiful and romantic film that even has a few scenes where you just cannot help but CRY! By the end I was bawling...but then again, I can be a bit of a sook!
I thought Toni Collette's performance in this film was outstanding as was the male lead character Gotaro Tsunashima and I thought some of the Australian scenery was breathtaking. So beautiful.
Another great thing about this movie is it's length at only 102 minutes. Personally ...
tblake7 16.05.2006 (21.05.2006)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Japanese Story (DVD)
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Advantages: Great series, good art, and great action Disadvantages: Nothing yet,
the Peasents, while the samurai live with blood on their hands.
I wanted to tell you guys more, but I don't want to spoil the story.
This dvd has the following features, 2 audio, english and Japanese.
character info, and some breif history on the movie and story.
chracter or anime pictures that you can download onto your computer. and trailers of other anime.
This is a good series that anyone can get into even if you have never seen the seven samurai movie like me, though it makes you want to see it. ...
Advantages: Great art, great use of colour or no colour. Disadvantages: Odd story complex too short.
really odd and maybe too weird, since it is really short, its value for money isn't really worth it, but I still enjoyed it nevertheless, since near the end the action wasn't all that bad, and the art wasn't all the bad, but the lengthen and complexity of this story was probably want spoilt it for me.
The dvd features of two audio, english and japanese, along with a list of european subitiles plus english, along with dvd trailers and other trailers, and a explaination of the story in writting and character art.
But even with all this overall as the story got more complicated the more I lost my enjoyment for it.
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Advantages: Magical and enthralling Disadvantages: NOTHING
:
~~~~~~~~~~
? Complete Storyboards? A look at the film?s artistry
? Original Japanese Theatrical Trailer
? The Birth Story Of Studio Ghibli Featurette
? Studio Ghibli Trailer Reel
Language Japanese
Subtitles: English
Region: Region 2
Number of discs: 1
Classification: PG
Run Time: 116 minutes
ASIN: B000ANVNH6
Costs around £7.99
Greg. ...
A young, confident and successful business woman is given the responsibility of accompanying a potential Japanese investor across Australia. She finds him misogynistic, he finds her lacking the charms he expects from the 'fairer sex'. And yet, despite themselves, a passionate relationship develops between them.
Release details
DVD Region
DVD
Studio(s)
PALISADES TARTAN; FUSION MEDIA SALES, PRISM LEISURE
Release date
27/09/2004, 06/02/2006
No of Discs
1
Catalogue No
TVD 3506, PPA 1660 RD
Barcode
5023965350626, 5050824166050
Languages
Main Language
English
Technical information
Special Features
Theatrical Trailer, Tartan Trailer Reel, Trailers
Aspect Ratio
1.85 Anamorphic Wide Screen
Sound
DTS 5.1 Surround, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround, Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Dubbing Sound
DTS 5.1 Surround English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo English
Professional reviews
Review
"... A raw emotional journey... Spectacular... Remarkable..." (Empire, )
, A raw emotional journey... spectacular... remarkable. (Empire, )
DVD Description
This romantic drama stars Toni Collette as Sandy, a high-strung Australian geologist assigned to escort Japanese businessman Hirotmitsu (Gotaro Tsunashima) on a tour through the outback. Ostensibly he's there to visit the various mines his company co-owns, but his real motives are mysterious and soon he is urging her to drive deep into the middle of the Pilabra Desert. A mutual dislike for one another, enhanced by vast cultural differences keep them at arm's length at first, but when their jeep gets mired in sand in the middle of nowhere, their fight for survival leads them towards a deep human connection. They find themselves falling in love as they drift aimlessly amidst the desolate beauty of the area, but soon comes a sudden, unexpected shock. Written by Alison Tilson and directed by Sue Brooks, JAPANESE STORY explores the distances between cultures, people, and the vast emptiness of Australia's interior regions. Yet even the spectacular desert scenery can't compete with Collette's complex stunner of a performance. Suntanned, tender, gutsy and raw, she plumbs frighteningly real depths of emotion and vulnerability. Tsunashima is also excellent, bringing simplicity and grace to an enigmatic role.
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