Message from hlowe

[Anonymous]

The Sea is Watching was a script written by the late Japanese director Akira Kurosawa. O-Shin is a geisha and one day a samurai named Fusanosuke appears in her town on the run after having killed a man. She assists him by giving him shelter and cutting his hair. The two fall in love, despite the objections from O-Shin's friend Kikuno. Eventually Fusanosuke leaves, only to return one day and reveal that he is engaged and that it would shame him and his family to marry a prostitute. The second half of the film involves O-Shin again falling in love with a fallen samurai, this one named Ryosuke.

This scrpit was written by the great director, Kurosawa, though I don't know how many drafts of the script were done, the story needs a little work. The story at times takes on a soap opera feel, this slows the pace down a great deal. There is huge potential here given the subject matter and various themes. But the characters are never really given their full due. The movie tries to answer the following questions. Who is truely loveable and un-loveable? Can someone start over no matter how bad their past? The themes are never fully explored in the film, as a result the film comes off slight. Nothing that resembles the work of the great master, Kurosawa. The saving grace is the last scene when a typhon comes and destroys the brothel and the town. O-Shin is left on the roof waiting for her lover to show, of course he does, and takes her away. The water representing the washing away of ones sins and a new beginning. This is classic Kurosawa. The film was okay, not great. I wonder how Kurosawa would have changed the script and directed the film if he were still alive.