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Japan
  • Studio: Tartan
  • Release Date: Mar 19, 2003
Metascore
76 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 14 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 14
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 14
  3. Negative: 0 out of 14
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  1. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: John Powers
    100
    Japón, isn’t just the wildest eruption of the current Mexican film boom, it's the most fascinating new picture I've seen this year.
  2. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Manohla Dargis
    90
    Some filmmakers give us dreams and false worlds in which we can find refuge. For others, though, like the young Mexican filmmaker Carlos Reygadas, the movies aren't an escape from the world but a way more deeply into it.
  3. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Patrick Z. McGavin
    88
    The work of a remarkable new talent. By the movie's towering, final tracking shot, this imaginative, dazzling film achieves distinction.
  4. New York Post
    Reviewed by: V.A. Musetto
    88
    Doesn't have the crossover appeal of the Mexican sexcapade "Y Tu Mama Tambien," but it does herald the arrival of an audacious young filmmaker. We can't wait to see what he does next.
  5. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: J. Hoberman
    80
    A notably confident and achieved debut.
  6. Variety
    Reviewed by: David Rooney
    80
    Its powerfully visual storytelling delivers great rewards as the meditative drama moves into increasingly complex, at times confrontational territory.
  7. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: David Sterritt
    75
    It's an engrossing and inventive drama despite its flaws.
  8. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Ty Burr
    75
    This crudely powerful film is a throwback. Unfolding at an elliptical pace that feels like a revelation, or tedium, or both, Japon recalls the glory days of 1970s art-house filmmaking.
  9. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Ken Fox
    70
    This strange and beautifully expressive film set in a remote Mexican canyon has nothing whatsoever to do with Japan, but its themes are as universal as they come.
  10. New York Magazine (Vulture)
    Reviewed by: Peter Rainer
    70
    Reygadas is both a sophisticate and a primitive: He sets up his film as a religious allegory, with the nameless painter as a kind of suffering Christ and the old woman--whose name is Ascen, as in Ascension--as his redeemer.
  11. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Scott Tobias
    70
    A dense, challenging work by any measure, Japón snakes toward a justly celebrated final shot that's technically astonishing and immensely powerful, cementing the arrival of a promising new talent.
  12. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Dana Stevens
    70
    Luckily Mr. Reygadas has talent to match his ambitions; or, rather, gifts that undercut them sufficiently to give his film a prickly, haunting poignancy.
  13. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marjorie Baumgarten
    67
    The one thing that is clear from Japón is that a major new visual stylist has hit the screen and that Reygadas’ first film represents the beginning of an auspicious career.
  14. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jami Bernard
    50
    Tough going for most audiences and should be considered more of a rough draft full of lofty ideas unevenly executed.
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User Reviews

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User Score
5.3 out of 10

Mixed or average reviews- based on 9 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 5
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 5
  3. Negative: 2 out of 5
  1. TJ
    10
    This director is brilliant. It is an extremely slow film, but the director's eye is astonishing and he gives you a great sense of being in Mexico. If you like mainstream movies, stay away. If you like Antonioni and other dreamy, existential directors then check it out.… Full Review »
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