Maborosi

Posted on 20. Mar, 2009 @ 11:49 pm by in Media, Movies Views: 672

Maborosi

Maborosi

I have been watching a lot of Japanese movies recently because my university library happens to be huge. I recently watched this movie: Maborosi (幻の光 in Japanese).

As I said, I have seen a lot of Japanese films, and I enjoy most of them. However, Maborosi was really, really, slow.

It’s beautiful… but slow. The cuts are like beautiful photos, and the whole atmosphere of the movie is dark, but wonderful and very convincing. Also, to my delight, it’s all in Kansai-ben.

Still though. It was slow!

The Amazon editorial review says that it is in the style of Yasujiro Ozu. I have seen quite a few Ozu films, including classics like Late Autumn, Late Spring, and Good Morning to name a few, but they didn’t remind me of Maborosi at all. I liked Ozu’s films a lot more.

Has anyone else seen Maborosi? What did you think?

- Harvey

[UPDATE] If you’re interested in Kansai-ben, check our our Kansai-ben iPhone Application! Japanese 101: Kansai Dialect

Tags: , ,

  • http://darnedtoheck.blogspot.com/ Grant

    I saw it, gave it a 3 out of 5 star rating on NetFlix (okay, but average), and have since forgotten everything about it. I definitely like Ozu’s films better.

  • http://slashandburn.typepad.com/yakihito/ Adam

    It’s been a while since I saw it but I really enjoyed it. This was director Kore’eda’s first film. He’s since gone on to do “After Life,” “Nobody Knows” and “Hana.” The latter is his most upbeat. My favorite of his films is “After Life.” Seen it probably 10 times.

  • http://Www.japannewbie.com Harvey

    Oh i have seen afterlife and loved it. Didn’t realize it was the same director! Il put hana on my must see list!

  • http://www.alexmatz.com Alex

    Also been a while for me, the plot was not as memorable, had to look up a synopsis to remember. However I did enjoy the photography a lot; very beautiful, especially the shots by the ocean. Absolutely loved “Afterlife” and also enjoyed “Dare mo Shiranai.”

  • Speed

    I thought that I was the only one that didn’t really enjoy Maborosi that much – it was just a bit too slow and didn’t really think it warranted winning a film award. I wasn’t reminded of Ozu after seeing it, either. Dare mo shiranai was excellent though. It also had slow picturesque shots, but it didn’t drag like Maborosi.

  • http://nihonjon.com nihonjon

    I watched it and wrote a paper on its themes for a sociology course at a j-uni in Osaka.

    In my paper I wrote how the slow pace and rather mellow tones really contributed to bringing the audience into her life and how she was experiencing it.

    Wouldn’t watch it again though.w

  • empireofpassion

    I live in Europe and would like to see the movie, but it seems to be available only as DVD for region 1 whereas the japanese version with english subtitles (region 2) is out of print. Any suggestion where I could find it? Thanks a lot.

    I have seen After Life and liked it a lot.

JapanNewbie
    Twitter Feed

Welcome to JapanNewbie.com! My goal is to get you excited about Japan and the Japanese language. Love it! This blog has been around for more than five years now, so be sure to dig into the archives and use the search. You never know what you might find!

Recent Comments:




  • Photos on flickr