Perry Kate Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Dorathen Better Late Then Never

Donald Seymour This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Roxie The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Red-125 The Japanese film Maboroshi no hikari was shown in the U.S. with the title Maborosi (1995). It was directed by Hirokazu Koreeda.This is a unique film. There's almost no direct action in the movie. Bad things happen. In fact, the plot is based on the reaction of the protagonist to bad events in her life. However, all of these tragic events take place off screen. Some of them are implied and never stated.At the very beginning of the movie, a young girl named Yumiko pleads with her grandmother not to leave their home. The old woman walks on anyway, and, that evening, she is still missing. In the next scene, Yumiko is a grown woman with a husband and a three-month old baby. We have to assume that her grandmother never was found.The cinematography was very unusual in the film. Scenes progress very slowly. For example, in a typical U.S. movie, we would see a train in a long shot, then much closer, and then pulling into a station. Not so here. We see the train in a very long shot, and then we watch for two more minutes as it comes closer and closer, and finally arrives. All this is done using the same camera and the same lens. The train comes closer as it would if we were actually watching it arrive in real time.In addition, for indoor scenes, director Koreeda uses the technique of setting up his camera close to the floor, so we see the actors as we'd see them if we, too, were sitting on the floor. Director Yasujirō Ozu used this device to great advantage, as does director Koreeda.Again, like Ozu, Koreeda makes the location of a scene as important as the actions of the actors at that location. He may show us a room into which the actors enter and interact. After they leave the room, we still see some frames of the room. When you think about it, the room has been there before the people enter, and will continue to be there after they leave. We don't normally think of it that way, but that is the reality. I don't normally mention cinematographers in my reviews, but the cinematographer of this movie was Masao Nakabori, and his work is extraordinary.This film will rise or fall depending on the acting skills of the protagonist. Yumiko is portrayed by the actress and model Makiko Esumi. She is superb in the role of a young woman who looks forward to a peaceful and relatively uneventful life. That's not how matters turn out, and the story revolves around the life that she actually receives, and how she responds to that life.We saw Maborosi at home, on the small screen. It would work better in a theater, because there are some glorious views of the Sea of Japan (East Sea). However, unless you're very lucky, you'll have to see the film on the small screen, where it works well enough.Maborosi is carrying a strong IMDb rating of 7.6. I think it's even better than that. It's worth seeking out and watching. Just don't expect martial arts or explosions. It's a very quiet film.

cattuongmaixuan Maborosi reminds me of the blue light in The Great Gatsby. They share the same elegiac connotation, same amour fou acts, but each are depicted in different ways. Needless to say, both are visually stunning and thought-provoking. As tender as the sea in cinematography and processing images, and as powerful as the sea in the reverberation it leaves.In Maborosi, the flashbacks of a previous honey-like marriage life will haunt you to the end of the film. They would blob up in your head at every scene, force you to find the protagonist's new life not so credible. But you can't help but feel genuinely happy for her.The plot may seem to be a straightforward no-brainer, yet, as Roger Ebert has put it perfectly, "Maborosi" is not going to insult us with a simple-minded plot. It is not a soap opera. Sometimes life presents us with large, painful, unanswerable questions, and we cannot simply "get over them."This is a must-see film, though not so much about loneliness as it is about a haunting never-to-be-answered question, a distant but torturing question. A life-long question that everyone once had, or is having, or will have. If some day you have found that question, watch Maborosi again.

politic1983 Asian cinema, good Asian cinema, can typically be hard to come by in the UK, with increasing difficulty, despite the increasing nature of media communications and online shopping and streaming. I like my Japanese cinema (well, not mine personally) and I find myself often frustrated with the lack of access to some of the better films on offer. But, locating a Korean, Region 3 DVD copy of Katsuhito Ishii's 'The Taste of Tea'; and sourcing a Japanese (thank God for Region 2!) copy of Kore-eda Hirokazu's 'Maborosi' - both featuring English subtitles - I set about watching two films considered towards the better end of Japanese cinema over the last two decades.One thing that interests me about both of these films is that their Japanese titles both feature the hiragana の('no'): 'Cha no aji' ('The Taste of Tea')and 'Maboroshi no hikari' ('Illusionary Light'). Both incorporating the Japanese possession particle, I thought that good enough a reason for comparison. The Japanese have noh theatre, so here's a bit of 'no' cinema...Both also star TadaNObu AsaNO. Starting with 'The Taste of Tea', as I watched that second, we see a film that can be described by unimaginative minds as 'quirky.' Looking at the lives of the HaruNO family, each has their own little story within the film and a mini-battle they want to overcome: the young daughter keeps seeing giant versions of herself; the son struggles with the fairer sex, hoping his go skills can woo; the uncle wonders aimlessly on his visit from Tokyo; the mother tries to re-ignite her animation career; the grandpa with his unusual habits. The most ordinary member of the family is the father, regularly away at work, but acting as the straight man to keep the extraordinary bunch together. And so is the situation in the lives of this Tochigi family, going about their strange ways each day in their sleepy town. But as the film develops, each family member unwittingly looks to another for support in overcoming their personal strife: the uncle helps the daughter with a 'crap' story from his childhood; the son practices go with his father; the grandpa poses for the mother's animation design; as well as helping out with the studio recording of the estranged brother's strange musical ambitions. 'The Taste of Tea' is a typical film about nothing, with no real plot to speak of, but more a series of scenes between the main characters. With a long running time, it could perhaps bore many, though the film has enough humour to keep entertained, with various sub-plots switching the attention so as not to make any one character become tired. But the real story here is one of family and how they all keep each other going, however unconventional the methods may appear. The bizarre grandpa proves to be the head of the family, watching over them all in his own idiosyncratic way. The characters are strange, the special effects are strange, yet it is somewhat of a familiar portrait of family life. Kore-eda Hirokazu is a director that is known for his films about stranger aspects of modern family life, with abandoned children, separated siblings and half siblings and switches at birth. However, whereas Ishii's is more a view of the strength of family ties, Hirokazu looks more at the strain the unusual scenarios can put on families in the modern world. One of his earlier films, 'Maborosi' looks at another unusual family scenario: Yumiko has a seemingly idyllic life in Osaka with her young husband - they are able to laugh and joke and look forward to the birth of their unborn child. However, unexplained and suddenly, Ikuo, her husband, commits suicide on local train tracks, leaving Yumiko's life in twilight. Re-marrying a steady widower, she moves to his small fishing hometown to live with his father and daughter. However, Yumiko's life lacks colour, seemingly in a daydream, struggling to come to terms with the loss of her first husband and the mystery around his death. 'Maborosi', therefore, is somewhat of a bleak film, creating a feeling of numbness. With the situation unresolved for Yumiko, Hirokazu chooses to shoot the entire film in twilight. The translation of the Japanese title, 'Imaginary Light', fits the film's tone perfectly. Similar to 'After Life', the colours of the screen are incredibly vivid and memorable, with a unique and haunting quality. In that sense, 'Maborosi' is a visual masterpiece of cinema, using colour perfectly to reflect the story. One of the best reviews I've read of 'Maborosi' described it as a if having 'read a haiku.' This is perhaps the best way to summarise this film: it paints a perfect picture of a woman's torment at her husband's death, yet maybe lacks any sense of journey; it paints the picture of an emotion, rather than telling a story. The film's revelation at the end comes as fast and as sudden as Ikuo's death, though maybe feels somewhat cheap and easy. This is a masterclass in the use of colour in a film, though perhaps the story and characters could be painted with a little more of that colour as well. 'The Taste of Tea' and 'Maborosi' are two films about unconventional families, though that is perhaps where the similarity ends. Both are slow films with little in the way of plot, but their outlook and style couldn't be more polemic. The joy of family life in 'The Taste of Tea's' is counteracted by the brooding mourning of 'Maborosi'. Colour is a word important to both: 'The Taste of Tea' brilliantly creates colourful characters and anecdotes to entertain; whereas 'Maborosi' uses colour to further the tone and mood of the film. While for different reasons, both are examples of brilliant film- making in their own right...It might just depend what mood you're in, no?!

ebiros2 This was the directing debut for director Hirokazu Koreeda. It was also the movie debut for Makiko Ezumi in the lead role.Yumiko's (Makiko Ezumi) grandmother ran away from home when she was twelve. She had deep regrets about not being able to stop her grandmother. Yumiko marries Ikuo (Tadanobu Asano) when she was 25. Ikuo somehow reminded her of her grandmother. Yumiko bears a son Yuuichi (Gohki Kashiyama), but one day without any notice, Ikuo commits suicide by walking in front of a train. Few years later, Yumiko is relocated to a town in Okunoto area of Japan. There she remarries with Tamio (Tsuyoshi Naito). Tamio is a widower and has a daughter Tomoko (Naomi Watanabe). Yumiko's memory of Ikuo starts to fade in her newly found happiness, but when she attended her brother's wedding, she starts to be haunted by Ikuo's memory again. Yumiko in her desperation runs away from home, and encounters a funeral where the coffin is carried to the rocks by the sea and is set on fire. Yumiko stands there watching the funeral pyre burning, when Tamio who came looking for her finds her. Yumiko asks Tamio "Why did Ikuo commit suicide ? I still can't understand why !". Tamio answers "My father who was a fisherman told me that he used to see Maboroshi (Illusion) lights in the horizon that beckoned him to come." and tells Yumiko "Anyone has a moment like that.". As if Tamio's words exorcised Yumiko's heart, Yumiko finds peace and happiness with her family again. Following Spring, she was sitting peacefully with Tamio's father by the inner garden of their home, watching the sun go down.The tone of the story is very much similar to many of the movies made by director Koreeda. It's almost like a darker, rougher version of his more recent movie "Still walking". There are no single point to the movie, except for people lost in their lives (which seems to be Koreeda's theme). His tone is lightening up these days, and his movies have more mass appeal now, but this movie has one of the darkest moods out of all his films. It's also a very difficult film to understand, which I think will limit its audiences. If you like artsy movies, this movie is for you.