Mjeteconer Just perfect...

GurlyIamBeach Instant Favorite.

Lumsdal Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

Bergorks If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

tieman64 Kon Ichikawa's "The Makioka Sisters" (aka "A Fine Snowfall") centres on the lives of four upper middle class Japanese sisters during the lead up to the Pacific War. The sisters belong to the Makioka family, a once powerful house which is now witnessing its declining years.The film opens with various misty landscape shots, before settling upon close ups of flower blossoms and petals. Throughout the film, like Ozu, Ichikawa uses ripening fruit and flower buds to suggest impermanence, transience and the passage of time. As Japan awaits change (and bloodshed), the sisters mourn the loss of their parents, fret over their family's finances and battle over tradition. One sister must be wedded to a man before she reaches a certain age, but her moxy and fiery independence (shades of Jane Austen) are at odds with both her biological clock and Japan's customs. Another sister wants to use the family's money to start a doll-making business, but the venture soon gives way to conventional, Western style sewing. All the while, time spirals away, inexorably towards...Much of the film focuses on rituals and customs, most of which are drawn out to the point of parody, or shown to be archaic, laborious and ridiculously inflexible. Holding on to these customs, the eldest sisters believe, will preserve their house's greatness. But these customs, the film shows, are already dead, entombed buds desperately awaiting the new blooms promised by the two youngest, somewhat dissident sisters.The film is stately, melodramatic, lush and colourful, but at times conjures up the spooky lavishness of Kobayashi's "Kwaidan". Ichikawa films the sisters in such a way that they are at times made grotesque and ghostly by ritual. Like John Huston, Ichikawa's filmography is comprised largely of adaptations of highly-regarded literary works. "The Makioka Sisters" was based on a novel by by Junichirô Tanizaki, a major Japanese novelist.8/10 - Worth one viewing.

Michael Neumann This elegant domestic drama unfortunately offers little to viewers not already attracted to Japanese culture and tradition. The writing is sensitive; the photography is beautiful; but once the plot lines are clear don't expect many surprises.The story involves a pair of formality-bound wives attempting to uphold etiquette by arranging marriages for their more modern (and thus less willing) younger sisters. And because the film is set during the halcyon days just prior to World War Two, it presumably ends with an elegiac parting glance at the passing of a more refined age.Postscript: the all-too brief impressions above were gleaned from a single, incomplete screening during the film's brief theatrical run at the Opera Plaza Cinema complex in San Franscisco, way back in 1986 (three years later, I would be in the same small theater when the Loma Prieta earthquake hit). Now (certainly) older and (possibly) wiser, I would like the chance to re-evaluate it...

MartinHafer This is a gorgeous film to watch--you probably will never see a more beautiful view of Japan as you see of the wonderful cherry blossoms or Japanese Maples around Kyoto and Osaka. So, the cinematography is excellent. However, the story itself seemed awfully flat overall. The writing and acting was decent, but the film needed more energy, heart and a sense of humor for me to care more about the characters. Most of the characters would have surely benefited from a massive dose of this, as the way they were portrayed it was, at times, hard to for me to care about them or sustain my interest in the film. For example, the 3rd daughter (who was the one who repeatedly refused marriage proposals) was a bit of a cipher, as she didn't say very much and just used a lot of facial expressions instead of dialog. The youngest, though a little self-destructive, was probably the easiest to like or at least understand. And the two older sisters were very domineering but needed to be softened a little more--lest they seem too one-dimensional. A decent film, but that's all.

gordon-31 One should first read The Makioka Sisters by Junichiro Tanizaki to better understand this film. It is a very great novel about the life of four middle-class sisters in Osaka, Japan in the 1930's. The book describes in great detail the many subtleties of life in Japan which a Westerner can miss understanding in the film. The film rather closely follows the book and is very beautifully photographed.