I Was a Simple Man

Name: I Was a Simple Man
Genre: Drama
Released: November 19, 2021
Duration: 100 min
Rating: 83
Cast: Alexa Bodden, Boonyanudh Jiyarom, Chanel Akiko Hirai, Constance Wu, Hau'oli Carr

2021

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Universal acclaim based on 9 Critic Reviews

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I Was A Simple Man

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Movie Details & Credits

Strand Releasing | Release Date: November 19, 2021 | Not Rated

Starring: Alexa Bodden, Boonyanudh Jiyarom, Chanel Akiko Hirai, Constance Wu, Hau'oli Carr, Kanoa Goo, Kyle Kosaki, Nelson Lee, Steve Iwamoto, Tim Chiou

Summary: I Was A Simple Man is a ghost story set in the pastoral countryside of the north shore of O‘ahu, Hawai‘i. Revealed in four chapters, it tells the story of an elderly man facing the end of his life, visited by the ghosts of his past. Incorporating familial history and mythology, dream logic and surrealism, I Was a Simple Man is aI Was A Simple Man is a ghost story set in the pastoral countryside of the north shore of O‘ahu, Hawai‘i. Revealed in four chapters, it tells the story of an elderly man facing the end of his life, visited by the ghosts of his past. Incorporating familial history and mythology, dream logic and surrealism, I Was a Simple Man is a time-shifting, kaleidoscopic story of a fractured family facing the death of their patriarch that will take us from the high-rises of contemporary Honolulu to pre-WWII pastorals of O‘ahu and, finally, into the beyond. [Strand Releasing]… Expand

Director: Christopher Makoto Yogi

Genre(s): Drama

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 100 min

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Critic Reviews

100

Richard Brody

Dec 8, 2021

Yogi unfolds the characters’ intimate stories and the region’s history in sharply textured details and rapturous images; he blends social practicalities and metaphysical mysteries with a serene, straightforward astonishment. Read full review

Hoai-Tran Bui

Dec 8, 2021

I Was a Simple Man is a slow-burning walk toward the light, a paean for life, and the land and people that shaped it. It's the kind of love letter that only a lifelong resident of Hawaii like Yogi could make, to a resilient land whose scars will take long to heal. Read full review

RogerEbert.com Roxana Hadadi

Nov 22, 2021

A 100-minute spell of beauty and melancholy, intimate and grand in equal measure, a film that derives its power from the universality of its final destination and the relatability of the pain, love, and regret that pave the guiding road. Read full review

Michael Rechtshaffen

Dec 2, 2021

Taking a cue from its taciturn protagonist, I Was a Simple Man prefers to let its soulful poetic imagery do the bulk of the talking. Read full review

David Rooney

Dec 9, 2021

The edges are perhaps rougher and the narrative more structured, but the film carries echoes of the work of Asian contemplative cinema maestros Tsai Ming-liang and Apitchatpong Weerasethakul, both of whom Yogi cites as influences. Read full review

Guy Lodge

Dec 9, 2021

All Yogi’s actors work in subtle, effective deference to his natural command of atmosphere and place: This is a film where Hawaiian rainfall has as prominent and evocative a voice as any human presence, and where the growth of a tree marks time as clearly as the deepening crevices in a character’s face. Read full review

Bradley Gibson

Dec 8, 2021

Yogi brings us close to Masao’s personal tragedy while at the same time pulling back to see life and death at a cosmic level. The movie delves into the cycle of life and death enough so that that audience members can understand and accept the beauty of the process. Read full review

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