Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

Pluskylang Great Film overall

KnotStronger This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Micah Lloyd Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

gmwhite I wouldn't give many films a score of ten unless they were truly outstanding, not just better, but in a whole different league. It is a grade reserved for the likes of (if I may indulge in a little subjectivity) Tarkovsky's Stalker;, Kitano's Hana-Bi, In the Mood for Love' by Wong Kar-wai, Dreyer's Passion of Joan of Arc, Ozu's Tokyo Story; and very few others. It is more than mere technical brilliance, top-class acting, superb plot or camera-work. What each of these films possesses is sheer humanity, simultaneously painful and life-affirming.Eureka deserves to stand proudly in such company, for Eureka is a film that is so human it makes most others seem either shallow, over-wrought, or just pretentious. Eureka's plot is a simple, its action, dialog and soundtrack is sparse, camera movement is minimal. The sepia-toned photography is indeed a marvel to look at, and each of the actors performs with such restrained naturalness that they don't seem like performances at all. The result is a film that is less like a story being told, and more like an experience that is undergone or a journey shared. If there is any 'art' involved, it is in producing a film so fragile, yet so accessible, so desperately and painfully human out of material so grueling and alien to most of us fortunate viewers. And in this respect, the movement of Eureka mirrors that of the protagonists, the three traumatised survivors of a bloody bus high-jacking. They are a brother and sister,and the bus driver himself. In the wake of the tragedy, after some months of wandering and inactivity, they are drawn back together and set out on a bus.As may be gathered, this film is very much about the aftermath of tragedy, about how certain experiences may mark one off from the rest of society, and how with silence, stillness and human company, and most importantly, the passing of time, some form of healing may be glimpsed. And it is just a glimpse. Though the final scene is indeed moving, there is no big payoff, anymore than there might be in life itself. There is only the artistry of the film itself to transfigure the story, and it does this with such quiet, unobtrusive sympathy, that to call it 'artistry' seems almost to malign it. I haven't seen Aoyama's other films, so I can't say whether he is destined for a Tarkovsky-, Dreyer- or Ozu-like elevation to the cinematic pantheon, but this film is a refreshing example of the kind of deep humanity of the best directors, the best artists, one that marks a perfect 10 off from all the rest.

RichieTennenbaum I bought a cheap copy of Eureka from ebay (I couldn't get the nice UK version because I don't have a region-free DVD player), and was utterly transfixed by it--what a terrific film! However, through some awful twist of fate, the disc is flawed and I missed the ending of the movie. I'm hoping that I only missed the last few minutes, but I'm really p*ssed off nonetheless. I know I was near the end of the film from the chapter menu. Here's the last thing I saw: (SPOILER AHEAD) Makoto and Kazue stop at what seems to be some sort of ceremonial garden. The two previous scenes saw Makoto calling his ex-wife's beauty parlor and then hanging up, and then Kazue forming words with seashells on the bus. It looks like Makoto, having another coughing fit, collapses. thats the last thing i can see before the DVD skips back to the menu screen. If you're seen the movie, please help! thanks!

Mnemosyne-9 the first thing i heard about this movie was that it would be a 3.5 hours long black and white movie with a minimum of dialogues. that was all i needed to know to impatiently anticipate seeing Eureka. it took a while and it only showed in three cinema's here in belgium, in one cinema each month for they had only one copy of the film, so when i heard it played i found myself lucky to finally see it with a showing rate of once a day only five days/week. a bit surprised but then again could've guessed not a lot of people where in the (very)small theatre. as for most movies i anxiously await i held my breath, but this one captured me from the start. ok, better said: after the first scene is over you get involved with the three survivors of the bus-jacking, the driver and two kids - who never speak again from that day on and seem to live on their own (no one seems to know what ever happened to their parents... which is great, i love certain things that aren't explained in the movies,). but now i give away more than i like when writing about movies (this thing about the parents isn't even that important to the story, hence the give-away of this detail) *also, note that i saw this movie in september 2001 and never found it again to see or buy (if anyone has it and wants to get rid of it...)* the film is split up in three major parts. the first describes the fall and 'resurrection' of the driver, the second focusses on the children and how the three meet up again and try to bring their lives back into balance, the last part takes you on a final road trip through the country in a bus turned camper as a final solution type of thing. the last seconds hold a nice little surprise! (k, not a big o' deal - allthough it has this particular distinct meaning,wich i found quite amusing! -and will b lost for 99% of the viewers- the meaning that is) i know the duration was a turn of for a lot of people and i guess i can understand why most find Eureka boooring, but people like that never ever see these things in their whole perspective. if this movie were to've been made more up-tempo'd, it would've lost it's charm toootally. stories like these won't be told just that easily, it has to be absorbed in it's entirety, so one can feel every emotion intended, also gives you a bit time to think about things as you see them unfold instead of afterwords when you have to recollect the whole movie (which i did anyway but hey) this is a must-see-movie when being a moviejunk (especially the anti-hollywood-cinemaniacs) are u an emotional type? with eyes for beauty? see it.

jm I have this movie on dvd and I can now say that the more I watch itthe more I like it. This is top cinema. The scene when the mother of the kids wave tothem or the one when the mother leaves the house to never comeback and we see like a tube with a liquid inside which swingsback and forward are just great. The performing actors and thecinematography is excellent. Very beautiful indeed. Yes, perhaps a bit long but it's justified. This is a good example ofa movie which has a low pace but which is right, precise, goodand relevant to the subject and not, for instance, like the movies ofTheo Angelopoulus which are simply unbearable and extremelypretentious. In cannes 2000 Eureka won the fipresci award. It is true that theyear 2000 was a tough one to win because of the high level of theproductions on competition but I have some doubts why "dancer inthe dark" won to movies like this one or "in the mood for love", themasterpiece of Wong Kar Wei Japanese cinema is producing great movies. This is anotherexample of it.