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  • 2021
  • Strand Releasing
  • 1 h 40 m
  • 2021
  • Strand Releasing
  • 1 h 40 m

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 a time-shi...

  • 2021
  • Strand Releasing
  • 1 h 40 m
  • 2021
  • Strand Releasing
  • 1 h 40 m

I Was a Simple Man

Metascore Universal Acclaim Based on 9 Critic Reviews
83
User Score Available after 4 ratings
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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 a time-shi...

Where to Watch

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Critic Reviews

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Metascore
Universal Acclaim Based on 9 Critic Reviews
83
100% Positive
9 Reviews
0% Mixed
0 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews

  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
  • Mixed Reviews
  • Negative Reviews

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
Universal Acclaim Based on 9 Critic Reviews
83
100% Positive
9 Reviews
0% Mixed
0 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews

  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
  • Mixed Reviews
  • Negative Reviews
100
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.
By Richard Brody FULL REVIEW
90
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.
By Hoai-Tran Bui FULL REVIEW
83
Dec 9, 2021
Layering the spectral hush of “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives” over the elegiac domesticity of a late Ozu film like “An Autumn Afternoon,” the Honolulu-born filmmaker’s singularly Hawaiian second feature is haunted and haunting in equal measure — a reckoning pitched at the volume of a whisper.
By David Ehrlich FULL REVIEW
80
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.
By Guy Lodge FULL REVIEW
80
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.
By David Rooney FULL REVIEW
75
Nov 16, 2021
The film’s quietly uncanny narrative wondrously depicts not only a dying man’s reflection on his life, but also the very nature of Hawaii itself.
By Wes Greene FULL REVIEW
70
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.
By Bradley Gibson FULL REVIEW

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Details

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Production Company Flies Collective, Island Film Group, Simple Man
Release Date Nov 19, 2021
Duration 1 h 40 m
Genres
Website http://www.iwasasimpleman.com/
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Awards

VC FilmFest - Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival
• 1 Win & 2 Nominations
Hawaii International Film Festival
• 1 Win & 2 Nominations
San Diego Asian Film Festival
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination

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