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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

67
$9.99
75
24 City
66
Adoration
74
Afghan Star
48
Alien Trespass
56
American Violet
82
Anvil! The Story of Anvil
57
Away We Go
81
Beaches of Agnes, The
62
Big Man Japan
28
Big Shot-Caller, The
78
Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story, The
55
Brothers Bloom, The
82
Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country
xx
Call of the Wild
63
Cheri
62
Cherry Blossoms
63
Dead Snow
65
Departures
18
Downloading Nancy
58
Easy Virtue
70
End of the Line, The
77
Every Little Step
64
Examined Life
80
Food, Inc.
38
Gigantic
56
Girl from Monaco, The
67
Girlfriend Experience, The
87
Gomorrah
89
Goodbye Solo
63
Great Buck Howard, The
79
Harvard Beats Yale 29-29
xx
Home
82
Hunger
91
Hurt Locker, The
16
I Hate Valentine's Day
81
Il Divo
54
Is Anybody There?
71
Jerichow
58
Julia
74
Lemon Tree
36
Life is Hot in Cracktown
40
Limits of Control, The
42
Little Ashes
64
Lymelife
50
Management
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Merry Gentleman, The
66
Moon
35
New York
62
Not Forgotten
xx
Offshore
78
O'Horten
64
Outrage
40
Paris 36
54
Pontypool
71
Pressure Cooker
52
Quiet Chaos
83
Revanche
67
Rudo y Cursi
86
Seraphine
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Sex Positive
70
Shall We Kiss?
77
Sin Nombre
59
Sleep Dealer
74
Song of Sparrows, The
54
Stoning of Soraya M., The
82
Sugar
84
Summer Hours
61
Sunshine Cleaning
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Surveillance
42
Tennessee
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Tetro
64
Throw Down Your Heart
80
Tokyo Sonata
63
Tokyo!
70
Tony Manero
74
Treeless Mountain
88
Tulpan
74
Two Lovers
83
Tyson
83
U2 3D
60
Under Our Skin
69
Unmistaken Child
69
Valentino: The Last Emperor
22
What Goes Up
45
Whatever Works
57
Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love
91
Hurt Locker, The
89
Goodbye Solo
88
Tulpan
87
Gomorrah
86
Seraphine
84
Summer Hours
83
U2 3D
83
Revanche
83
Tyson
82
Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country
82
Sugar
82
Hunger
82
Anvil! The Story of Anvil
81
Il Divo
81
Beaches of Agnes, The
80
Food, Inc.
80
Tokyo Sonata
79
Harvard Beats Yale 29-29
78
Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story, The
78
O'Horten
77
Every Little Step
77
Sin Nombre
75
24 City
74
Treeless Mountain
74
Afghan Star
74
Two Lovers
74
Song of Sparrows, The
74
Lemon Tree
71
Pressure Cooker
71
Jerichow
70
Shall We Kiss?
70
Tony Manero
70
End of the Line, The
69
Valentino: The Last Emperor
69
Unmistaken Child
67
$9.99
67
Rudo y Cursi
67
Girlfriend Experience, The
66
Adoration
66
Moon
65
Sex Positive
65
Departures
64
Outrage
64
Examined Life
64
Throw Down Your Heart
64
Lymelife
63
Tokyo!
63
Cheri
63
Dead Snow
63
Tetro
63
Great Buck Howard, The
62
Cherry Blossoms
62
Big Man Japan
62
Not Forgotten
61
Sunshine Cleaning
60
Under Our Skin
59
Sleep Dealer
58
Julia
58
Easy Virtue
57
Away We Go
57
Merry Gentleman, The
57
Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love
56
Girl from Monaco, The
56
American Violet
55
Brothers Bloom, The
54
Is Anybody There?
54
Pontypool
54
Stoning of Soraya M., The
52
Quiet Chaos
50
Management
48
Alien Trespass
45
Whatever Works
42
Little Ashes
42
Tennessee
40
Limits of Control, The
40
Paris 36
38
Gigantic
36
Life is Hot in Cracktown
35
New York
28
Big Shot-Caller, The
28
Surveillance
22
What Goes Up
18
Downloading Nancy
16
I Hate Valentine's Day
xx
Call of the Wild
xx
Home
xx
Offshore
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Japanese Story
Samuel Goldwyn Films
MPAA RATING: R for some sexuality and language
Starring
Toni Collette,
Gotaro Tsunashima,
Matthew Dyktynski,
Lynette Curran,
Yumiko Tanaka,
Kate Atkinson,
John Howard,
and
Bill Young
A cross-cultural journey, an emotional drama and a haunting love story between an ambitious geologist and a Japanese businessman. (Samuel Goldwyn Films)
| GENRE(S): |
Drama
|
Foreign
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Alison Tilson
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Sue Brooks
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: May 11, 2004
Video: May 11, 2004
Theatrical: December 31, 2003
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
100 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
Australia |
Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress (Collette), Best Cinematography and Best Composer, 2003 Australian Film Critics Circle Awards; Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress (Collette), Best Original Screenplay, Best Score, Best Original Score, Best Sound, Best Cinematography and Best Editing, 2003 Australian Film Institute Awards

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
100
Baltimore Sun
Michael Sragow
The glory of Japanese Story is that even after a daringly abrupt plot turn, the cast maintains its empathy and lucidity without interruption.

90
Variety
David Stratton
Develops into a powerfully emotional experience thanks to a career-best performance by Toni Collette.

90
New York Magazine
Peter Rainer
Tsunashima gives a deft performance in a role that starts out as caricature but becomes full-bodied. Collette commands the screen virtually the entire time.

90
Time
Richard Schickel
Japanese Story is a simple, austerely told tale. But there is something memorable, even haunting, about it.

88
Chicago Tribune
Michael Wilmington
A movie with surprises, some of which you should discover for yourself. But its main surprises may be the power of Collette's performance and the beautifully controlled mood and atmosphere Brooks creates.

88
Philadelphia Inquirer
Steven Rea
Plays with cultural stereotypes, and upends them as well. The picture starts as one thing and turns, dramatically, movingly, into something else.

88
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
Gradually the full arc of Toni Collette's performance reveals itself, and we see that the end was there even in the beginning. This is that rare sort of film that is not about what happens, but about what happens then.

88
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
Looks at isolation and the fragility of human relationships. It's a poignant, unsettling motion picture that will baffle those who have become used to Hollywood's compact, tidy endings.

83
Portland Oregonian
Marc Mohan
Collette proves herself worthy of carrying a movie with a performance that runs the gamut of human emotion without striking one false note.

83
Entertainment Weekly
Lisa Schwarzbaum
This is an origami story, really, about what a construction of chance the big world is.

80
Chicago Reader
Staff (Not credited)
The first half involves some dully familiar cross-cultural comedy, as the two grate on each other's nerves. But the descending action veers into unexpected emotional territory, deftly handled by screenwriter Alison Tilson.

80
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Keith Phipps
When the credits roll and the mood breaks, Japanese Story finally reveals itself as more dewy-eyed than deep, but as long as the mood holds, it holds fast.

80
LA Weekly
Scott Foundas
The quiet and intimacy of what is essentially a two-character piece are well juxtaposed by Brooks against the vast desert expanses of her home country, captured in sumptuous wide-screen cinematography by the great Ian Baker.

80
Los Angeles Times
Kevin Thomas
Collette is fearless in reaching deeply into her emotions, and her expressiveness as an actress comes across as completely natural because it so clearly comes from within.

80
Washington Post
Michael O'Sullivan
Like a haiku, it is not what is said, but what is unsaid, that leaves the most lasting echoes.

80
Empire
Angie Errigo
Offbeat and downbeat, its a film full of thoughtful stillness, powerful moods, reflective internal struggles and shattering, lonely self-realisation, suggesting more critical kudos than commercial impact.

78
Austin Chronicle
Marrit Ingman
This is not a conventional love story but a philosophical one.

75
Miami Herald
Rene Rodriguez
For all its cross-cultural hijinks, Japanese Story winds up as a tale about the fragility of human beings and the lasting strength of the bonds we form during times of crisis.

75
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Paula Nechak
Brooks has made a movie that is about separation from convenience and having to deal one-on-one with a stranger in a strange land. The result is a profound and moving movie.

75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Rick Groen
The story in Japanese Story grabs you precisely because it's so wonderfully hard to define.

75
Christian Science Monitor
David Sterritt
Brooks endows Japanese Story with a fair measure of suspense, pathos, and romance, despite the challenge of conjuring these qualities from only two main characters and not much else to look at in many scenes but sand, sand, sand.

75
New York Daily News
Jack Mathews
Japanese Story could have been a two-character play staged in front of a desert mural. It wouldn't have been as pretty, but it's that tight.

75
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
Tsunashima is superb, and a never-better Collette (The Sixth Sense, About a Boy, The Hours) has a radiant intensity that hits you right in the heart. She burns this movie into your memory.

70
The Hollywood Reporter
Michael Rechtshaffen
This offbeat take on "The African Queen" stumbles on a couple of awkward transitions, but generally succeeds on the merits of Collette's unerring ability to carry the viewer along her constantly changing emotional landscape.

70
TV Guide
Ken Fox
Toni Collette's extraordinary performance, Alison Tilson's sensitive script and Ian Baker's sensational cinematography add up to a surprising film.

70
The New York Times
Dana Stevens
Ultimately too thin for its length and too dependent on easy assumptions about its characters. But it does demonstrate that Ms. Collette is more than able to carry a movie, and it leaves you hoping she will soon have another chance to do it.

63
Boston Globe
Ty Burr
Best taken as a dazzling showcase for Collette, an actress who fits none of Hollywood's ideas of glamour or artistry, yet who grows like a beautiful outback weed with each new role she takes.

60
Washington Post
Desson Thomson
It's a grab bag of small delights -- and that includes a workmanlike performance by Toni Collette -- but it never quite amounts to a full load.

60
Village Voice
J. Hoberman
Totally convincing in a physically demanding role, Collette carries the movie on her shoulders -- and that weight is what it's all about.

50
San Francisco Chronicle
Mick LaSalle
To mildly respect Japanese Story is easy. To enjoy it would require an act of will.

38
New York Post
Megan Lehmann
Snoozy and unconvincing.

30
Dallas Observer
Gregory Weinkauf
Pretentious yet devoid of poetry, left-of-center yet artless, this well-intentioned trudge does not exist to be enjoyed or appreciated so much as to be coddled and patronized as one would a retarded child.


The average user rating for this movie is 5.7 (out of 10) based on 12 User Votes
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