That's how one should make films

Rating: 8/10 (8 December 2012)

The Japanese cinema is perhaps the world's best, specially in the medium of animation, where they lack anything resembling an equal given that only in Japan we have a truly mature animation industry. And in terms of live action films Japan is also a first rate power. Indeed, since the days of Kurosawa and Ozu, Japan has been showing to the world how to make films.
And this film is indeed one of those that shows the dramatic depth of Japanese cinema. Hollywood is still a long way from crafting drama of the same caliber, perhaps because the American zeitgeist which is characterized by a life of plenty for most Americans reduced the capacity of Americans to experience drama and thus affected negatively the film industry. Japan was a country that underwent much greater suffering and whose culture is characterized by a mentality shaped by these constraints which resulted into a more strong willed population and thus cinema with greater dramatic impact.
Rated: 8.5/10