Greenes
Please don't spend money on this.
SunnyHello
Nice effects though.
Acensbart
Excellent but underrated film
Mandeep Tyson
The acting in this movie is really good.
pinokiyo
This is your typical example of "The Emperor's New Clothes"If you have better and more important things to do, this is not a film to watch. You're really not missing anything by skipping this film. It's one of those sleeper films that you'd play during midnight and eventually fall asleep to. Don't get me wrong, I was actually excited to watch this, but I mean seriously, somebody has to speak out the truth -- this is really just your average movie where nothing really happens. So it has a cute cast, especially Suzu Hirose, and it's by a well known acclaimed director (seems where most of the bias is coming from), but there's no real suspense/drama/conflict or anything. It's just like another overrated film "Linda Linda Linda", where nothing really happens, but people seem to love it just because of the girls.One might argue, "Well, it's showing the real life day in the life of that Hollywood can never make!" Well, of course they won't make something like this because it's just simply boring; just showing sisters taking care of each other is absolutely boring. (I mean, honestly, I don't care for Hollywood blockbuster/action films/especially all the superhero movies either, I'm obviously not expecting that, but I also watch a lot of foreign/Japanese films and this really is overrated stuff.) Sure, to a foreigner, just seeing the countryside location taking place in Kamakura, Japan, and random bike riding scenes under the cherry blossoms is all beautiful and all, but that's all superficial. Where's the story? Too many Weeaboos, or people exclusively watching this at film festivals, overpraising this film than what it really is.
WILLIAM FLANIGAN
Our Little Sister / Sea Town Diary (Lit.). Viewed on DVD. Subtitles/translations = ten (10) stars; cinematography = eight (8) stars; music = seven (7) stars. Director Hirokazu Koreeda's feel-good Kamakura tale of three long-abandoned sisters (their father left 15 years ago, their mother moved to Hokkaido and last visited 14 years ago) living in their deceased grandmother's house unexpectedly discovering a much younger paternal half sister at their father's funeral. Since the three sisters have pretty much had to learn to raise themselves (under the watchful eye of a great aunt?), they feel qualified to raise the De Facto foundling. Koreeda is credited as being a screen writer and the editor. The Director under delivers on plot possibilities. Engaging emotional highs and lows are mostly among the missing. The scenario seems tinged with an aura of artificiality (it appears to lack, well, a real "sisters' touch"). Actress Suzu Hirose plays the "little" sister. While her performance is very good, she appears to be too old to play a coming-of-age teenager (the other three lead actress also seem a bit too old for their roles). Editing leaves some rough edges especially when intended scene sequences are abruptly terminated. Cinematography (semi-wide screen, color) and lighting are excellent except for an overexposed, inconsequential exterior scene that should have been re-shot or cut. Score is fine. Sound fields are okay. Subtitles and translations are outstanding. Dialog subtitles are close to being spot on. Writing and signs are translated. All closing credits are also translated--a rarity in Japanese films. Congratulations to the producers! An above average chick flick. Recommended. WILLIAM FLANIGAN, PhD.
Mintroll
I was anxious about Suzu Hirose, one of the main actress appears in this film because she was young and has little experience about acting. So I am relieved that her natural action brought success to this movie.I love Japanese movie like this. Nothing big happens, but people's mind gradually and certainly changes. We can appreciate Japanese language in this film. On the other hand I feel it is difficult to carry it in other languages. Actually the subtitles does not mean what characters want to say. Anyway, the changes of distance between four sisters are sensitively described to their actions, emotions, and words. These delicate expression is one of the attractive point of Japanese film.
writers_reign
It's not generally known that Anton Chekov wrote a sequel to - and better play than - his successful Three Sisters and the reason, of course, is that he didn't but if he HAD it would have been very much like this totally EXQUISITE film whose 128 minutes are far too short to allow the viewer to bask sufficiently in its perfection. After only about forty minutes I knew I wanted to watch it again and again. Once they have bestowed every Award available on this BEAUTIFUL movie they should then create a Special award, a one-off celebrating the laughter, tears, joy, melancholy and utter bliss that comprise Life, give it to this gem and then destroy it so that no other film can ever share it. This is a film you watch through a veil of gentle, warm, tears of joy, wallowing in the outstanding performances of the four sisters who share a home where making plum wine is a major event. I can't rule out the fact that I lack siblings of my own - and have never consciously felt a lack - coloured my view of three full sisters who invite the thirteen year-old daughter of their biological father and the woman for whom he deserted them and their mother to share the home in which they live alone. This is very much a film of small pleasures like preparing and eating meals together and is just as nourishing to the viewer. A gorgeous Faberge' egg of a movie. Watch it, please, I beg you.