kevinmontemayor89 Japanese Story is an interesting portrayal of how people can find oneself in unlikely situations. But the main ending point will confuse people on why someone needs to die for the screen writers to convey their points across to their audiences. And do the Japanese men commonly take rumspringas to Australia to sow their wild oats with Aussie women in order to become a better husband and father. This comment comes from the note Hiromitsu leaves for Sandy summing up how she and the desert landscape made him a better person. His wife could sense more than just a business trip occurs out in the nothingness of the desert. I feel like it's a nice prequel to Hall Pass but without the happy ending like what happened to Owen Wilson's character. Hiromitsu scored in Australia in order to put with his boring life in Japan for the rest of his days. I feel the screenplay failed in finding a less abrupt way to causally having Hiromitsu fly off into the eastern sunset and settled for an easy way out in his death.

llawson-e I was not sure if I could get into the story line of the movie at first. I didn't want to keep watching it until halfway through. At that point I became emotionally attached to the characters. I ended up loving the movie! It's a beautiful and surprising film that makes you feel the emotions the characters are going through. There were several times I was shocked as to what turns the movie makes. If you want to enjoy the movie have an open mind. It's a little confusing at times but keep watching!I enjoyed watching the cultural differences and how the interactions between the characters unfolded. More than anything the movie captures emotions and feelings between two people that unexpectedly found love.

secondtake Japanese Story (2003)Toni Collette is such a natural on screen, ranging from bemused to chagrined with a single change in her face, and seeming so vividly present in every scene, she almost makes this movie work. Her male counterpart, little known Japanese actor Gotaro Tsunashima, is meant to be an uptight and restrained contrast, but he may take that intention the wrong way, making his character bland on screen. That the two have to first dislike each other, and then not dislike each other very much, depends on some kind of magic between the actors, or characters, which just doesn't exist.And then there is the plot. On paper it even looks a bit thin--two young people arrive on a mining island in the Pacific for different reasons (one from Australia, the other from Japan), and after butting cultural heads a bit, they head off in their Land Cruiser to an isolated part of the barren landscape. So far we follow. But the plot depends on them getting stranded out there, very far from everything (but perplexingly still in cell phone range!), and so the writers concoct some kind of need, which isn't really clear to me, to drive farther, mostly because he tells her to. And they do get stranded.And then they get stuck. Oh, right. And they spend the night together, he rises out of his selfish haze, they become lovers, and then, in a tropical paradise part of the coast, tragedy strikes. And there is the necessary coming to terms with all the repercussions. The final, long long shot of Collette in the airport is, by this point, utter hedonism on the director's part, and it dulls an already dragging film.You might be able to take in the unusual setting for the film, and enjoy Collette's strengths, and make it through okay.

jreasa For a film to truly be successful with a paper-thin plot/storyline, it usually needs either: a powerful thematic point or lesson, and/or characters you know enough to either completely identify or empathize with, or at least understand. In "A Japanese Story", I got some of the first, but little to none of the second.Toni Collette's character "Sandy" carries the film (literally, I think she's in all but maybe one scene), but by the film's end I only had a slight grasp of who Sandy really was...and I didn't have the foggiest clue who "Hiromitsu" really was, the Japanese Businessman who randomly (we don't know why) decides to to boss Sandy around into driving them deep into the desert. I can only guess his whole trip was intended to be as some sort of getaway from his personal life, using "business" as something of ruse to get himself to Australia in the first place.There is a beauty to the simplicity of two strangers falling in love (well, sort of fall in love) while traveling through a desolate backdrop, but I just couldn't quite get over the hump of constantly asking myself in the back of the head "who the hell are these people and why should I care?". There didn't need to be some wild back story (Hiromitsu's upset the Yakuza and is running for his life!), but perhaps a better understanding of his position, his life back home...it would've drawn me into the story more.I gave it 6/10 because Collette had to do some serious acting and the scenery was amazing, and you can't help but feel some emotional stirring as the film develops, but there just wasn't enough "meat" to really grab me. Also, what is with the archetypal Japanese stereotypes going on this film? Not calling it outright racist...but I think the writers went a little overboard in drawing attention to the fact that we're dealing with two different cultures. Really, I can tell a Japanese from an Aussie apart, thanks.