Solemplex To me, this movie is perfection.

VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Tymon Sutton The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

politic1983 Limited, small community settings are more the focus for television soap operas than cinema, well, more commercial cinema at least. Lacking in action and excitement, two films that look more at the inner workings of the human condition rather than delivering out-and-out entertainment are Kore-eda Hirokazu's 2006 "Hana" and Yoshihiro Nakamura's 2013 "See You Tomorrow, Everyone"."Hana", Kore-eda's sole dip into the period drama, is set in a small community of early Eighteenth Century row houses. Souzaemon moves into the community as an obvious outsider: a middle-class samurai, he has no place being among society's low reaches. But his reason for being there is to seek out the man who murdered his father: the head of his clan. Souzaemon, however, is far from his father, clearly as out of place as a sword-carrying samurai as he is in the Edo milieu he finds himself in. Despite having located the murderer, he stays where he is, teaching the neighbourhood children and gradually integrating himself into part of the community, much to the chagrin of his clan back in Matsumoto who demand action for the regular funds supplied to him. Nakamura's "See You Tomorrow, Everyone", an equally slow-paced film, follows Satoru and his seemingly meaningless life living in a Tokyo project. Since leaving school, Satoru has spent his days doing his patrols, essentially keeping tabs on all the other inhabitants of the artificial community. One-by-one, those close to him move away to start new lives, leaving him alone, unemployed and with little prospect of a life beyond idolising his karate heroes.Feigning purpose with his daily rounds of his neighbours, his meddling soon upsets those around him and he is forced into making choices: he starts a job at a cake shop within the complex; gets engaged; and befriends a young Brazilian girl with a troubled home life, though again his interfering is unwelcome. Both are films set in low-income housing, though at different periods in time. "Hana" is set in a peasant dwelling, where people just about scrape enough money together to not pay the rent. These are people seeing little hope of a better life, and so accept the lot of where they are. "See You Tomorrow, Everyone", however, is a modern day equivalent: once seen as the artificial community of the future, it is now becoming a baron wasteland populated by single mums, the elderly and immigrant workers. People only see their future in escaping from it, something which Satoru cannot face-up to. The two leads are reluctant heroes: their situations both caused by a single violent act. Souzaemon is expected to follow the samurai tradition and seek revenge for the murder of his father, but never a swordsman of any skill, he stands little chance of carrying out his proposed destiny, as well as lacking any will to cause harm to his fellow man. A social problem in Japan, Satoru imprisoned himself at home in the projects after a school knife attack left him fearful of the outside world. Life has become theory that fails to ever get put into practice until a meeting with a young Brazilian girl who is outcast by her mother's Japanese boyfriend sees him look after their home and stand-up to the bad guy.Both have a villain to face, but where Satoru finally learns to stand-up to his enemy, Souzaemon makes the decision to befriend his father's killer and build a new path for his life. Both have found themselves in situations in which they were comfortable in life, too comfortable. Souzaemon found it easier to teach local children, living off the funds sent to him - funds for him to enact revenge. He hides from his social status as samurai and suffers from the inner conflict of his desire to be kind-hearted against his clan's expectation that he will fulfil his duty. Satoru's fears of the outside world keep him trapped in a prison of his own making. Ever since that day at school, he has been unable to step outside his self-imposed boundaries, oblivious to what is actually happening around him, despite believing himself to be the guardian of the complex. The world will move on until he is left behind and alone.Souzaemon's actions are considered and he is becoming a man - though different from what is expected - who chooses to lead his own life. Satoru, however, is unconscious in his life. His fears have seen him create his own world and his place within it, and while he insists on staying inside it, everyone else has chosen to leave. The act that sees him eventually break free from this world is an unconscious reaction without a moment's thought. Despite being a different setting for Kore-eda, "Hana" fits his usual slow-paced style, though perhaps with a bit more tomfoolery than usual. "See You Tomorrow, Everyone" is very slow in pace and development, though the timing of revelations are well worked and is a strong point of Nakamura's developing of the story. But being a period piece, there is a little less social comment at work than one would expect from Kore-eda. "Hana" looks at close community and as the film develops, Souzamon's friends increase in number. This is the opposite for Satoru, however, who can count the numbers reducing by the day. Nakamura comments on the gradual loss of community: the sad result on what was once considered to be the bright, hopeful environment of the future. People only want to move away and escape with little or no real knowledge of those who live around them. Those still there are the ones ignored by society and hidden away. Perhaps reflecting the difference of the period settings, "Hana" sees Souzaemon find a home, as well as himself; while "See You Tomorrow, Everyone" finds Satoru needing to escape the prison modern society has created. politic1983.blogspot.co.uk

WILLIAM FLANIGAN Viewed on DVD. Costume design = six (6) stars; set decoration = four (4) stars; cinematography/lighting = two (2) stars; subtitles/translations = one (1) star. Director Hirokazu Koreeda delivers a small-scale tail of slum dwellers in Edo (before it became Tokyo) living in mostly rice-paper "row houses." This is a tight little subculture where lack of privacy provides a constant (and addictive) source of home entertainment for a community of peeping toms (both native and newly arrived). A substantial number of slum dwellers are low-level/inept samurai in the process of joining the dinosaurs. There is fine character acting all round with humorous situations and amusing one-liners NOT lost in translation due in part to facial expressions and body-language acting. Actress Rie Miyazawa's creative and skillful deployment of the art of Japanese nuance adds much to enrich the narrative. Koreeda's fixation on scatological humor quickly becomes tiresome. The Director often seems to be grasping at plot straws including his murky incorporation (more or less) into the narrative of the fantasy legend of the forty-seven Rounin. Costuming is well done. For slum dwellers, their wardrobes appear to be pretty extensive and expensive! Exteriors are mostly limited to a back lot street set you have likely seen many times before. Slum dwellings are confined to a very short portion of this standing set street (it looks like you could easily split from one end to the other!). Cinematography (semi-wide screen, color) does not help matters much, since the same camera placements are repeatedly used as if photographing a stage play rather than a movie. Interior and nocturnal scenes are usually under lit to the point that the viewer can only guess what is happening. The score is a mixed bag with a predominance of music more appropriate for settings in the Scottish Highlands than Edo! Then there is the matter of subtitles and translations. It is close to impossible to both watch the actors and read the subtitles. An either/or situation. If you are a first time viewer and consider yourself to be "reasonably" fluent in Kansai conversational Japanese, turn off the subtitles to dispatch a major source of scene disruption and eye irritation. If you feel you need subtitles, turn off the audio, and just read the subtitles like you would a book. Be always ready to hit the pause and rewind buttons on your remote, since many 10 word (or more) subtitles appear on screen for literally less than a second!). The undisciplined/amateur subtitle writer (or unedited software program output) for this movie has utterly failed to apply grammatical rules to enable the viewer to read subtitles that summarize what is being said and also watch the movie. Instead the subtitle writer/program has tried to translate EVERYTHING that is being said! Word for word. Some signs are translated. Credits are not translated which seems to be an especially disrespectful action by the film's producers directed at all those who contributed to the making of this movie! Not especially recommended. WILLIAM FLANIGAN, PhD.

poe426 With its caste of row-house poor, HANA reminds one in many ways of Akira Kurosawa's classic, DODESKADEN (Mago, in particular, who brings to mind the young "star" of Kurosawa's movie). Samurai Soza's lack of pretension certainly sets him apart from most of the samurai we see in most samurai movies: he gives it the old bushido try, but, soundly trounced in front of the other row-house denizens, he doesn't suck it up and work toward avenging the insult (nor, ultimately, does he follow through on his avowed mission to avenge his father's death at the hands of another samurai). At first we see him ostensibly looking for a reason to kill; by film's end, he's looking for a reason to live. The final shot of the movie sums it all up so beautifully (and simply). If you're interested in flawless filmmaking, here it is: HANA never misses a beat.

Howard Schumann Hana Yori mo Naho is a Samurai film in which there are no flashing swords or bodies leaping over walls. Hirokazu Koreeda's (Maborosi, After Life) latest is a gentle comedy-drama that deconstructs the legend of the brave Samurai warrior and the Bushido code of seeking honor through revenge. The title of the film means flower, and Hana wants to change the symbol of the cherry blossom associated with the warrior spirit to one that represents a peaceful and nurturing life. Engendered by the earthy humor of the underclass, the film has many laughs, a wonderful soundtrack of joyous Renaissance music, and colorful characters brought to life by an excellent ensemble cast, yet it meanders and lacks a single crystallizing moment that brings its point home.Set in Edo (modern day Tokyo), Hana takes us back to the year 1702 where Soza (Okada Junichi), a young Samurai has come to the village to fulfill his father's dying wish and seek revenge against his killer, Jubei Kanazawa (Tadanobu Asano). Illuminating the conditions of the times, Soza lives in a dilapidated building that he shares with other impoverished residents: garbage collectors, fish peddlers, and debtors hiding out from collectors. Though he wants to restore honor to his family and collect the 100 Ryo reward from his clan to help his impoverished family, Soza lacks even the basic skills of a swordsman.This becomes painfully evident when he is roughed up by Sodekichi (Ryo Kase), a local resident who resents the Samurai. A friend, Sadoshiro (Arata Furuta) also exploits the trusting Soza, claiming many times in restaurants that he has seen Kanazawa in order to have Soza buy his food. While seeking the man who killed his father, Soza establishes himself in the community, teaching the boys and girls in the village to read and write and finding much in common with Osae (Rie Miyazawa), a married woman who, with her eight-year old son, is waiting for husband to return. A satirical subplot questioning the legend of the 47 Ronin and the warrior spirit the story represents, complicates things as a group of samurai on their own mission of revenge, hide in the town disguised as professional people.They distrust Soza, thinking that he is a spy and assign a fellow ronin to watch his every move. When the young Samurai finally crosses paths with his father's attacker, now a family man living with a widow and her child, he questions the Samurai code of honor and the ethics of revenge. Soza, sensitively portrayed by Okada - a band singer turned actor, is a good-hearted man who recognizes the need to better his society, yet Koreeda portrays him as a weakling and a coward, a role that undermines the film's anti-violence message. While Koreeda is to be congratulated for attempting a major stylistic departure and for condemning the endless cycle of violence, Hana falls short of his best efforts.