The Sea Watches

Colour, 35 mm
Japan, 2002, 129 min
Section: Another View

Synopsis

Akira Kurosawa, this time as a screenwriter, returns to the Edo period (before 1868) and takes us to the small provincial town of Okabasho in the eastern part of Tokyo bay. Here, where long canals flow through the town, a district lined with red lanterns is separated from the residential area, inhabited by geisha girls who do not live here by choice but were forced here by poverty. Their numbers include the beautiful O-Shin who has fallen in love with a young samurai; she offers him shelter after he has escapes from a group of soldiers. Love and a house of ill-fame, however, do not go together, and O-Shin, who dreams of a wedding and an ordinary life at the side of her beloved, experiences bitter disappointment. As the individual seasons of the year change, so, too, does the ocean. Then one day the district hemming in the women becomes a true prison. A wild storm strikes the coast and water floods the houses up to their roofs. Destiny takes its course…

About the director

Kei Kumai (b. 1930, Nagano) is a Japanese director who worked as an independent filmmaker for the Nikkatsu film company for many years. After experience as an assistant director and screenwriter, he decided to try his hand at directing and debuted with the film Teigin Case. Since then he has directed a number of films, among them The Long Darkness, An Ocean to Cross, Luminous Moss, Deep River. He is a highly respected figure in Japanese film, he has a distinctive filming style and usually looks at social issues through the eyes of the victims of social penury. He was awarded two Silver Bears at the Berlinale for the films Sadankan No. 8 and The Sea and  the Poison. He also won a Silver Lion at the Venice IFF for his film The Death of a Tea Master and the Jury Prize in Montreal for Deep River.