A bit of background about me- the person who writes this review.
I have been attending the Toronto Film Festival for about 30 years. I like "festival"-type films: the "artsy" ones, the multilayered ones, the slow ones (within limits). I admire (most of) Japanese cinema and I have seen (and enjoyed) many Japanese films.
Having said all that, this film is totally snobbish nonsense. Starting with the title (that has little to do with what is going on there), continuing with loooooong scenes where a fellow chops wood and carries water to a SUV and ending with - well - the final images - nothing has any rhyme or reason.
I was looking forward to this film as it was advertised as having an ecological theme, but, if anything, it does the ecological movement a great disservice: it portrays the ecologists (and their movement) as a bunch of weirdos.
I gave it 2 stars rather than 1 because somewhere in the film it explains where a septic tank should and should not be placed. (I learned something)
(To add insult to injury, at TIFF, the film was "presented" by a young lady who was (mis)reading form a slip of paper a text that she did not write and had no idea what it meant.)
I have been attending the Toronto Film Festival for about 30 years. I like "festival"-type films: the "artsy" ones, the multilayered ones, the slow ones (within limits). I admire (most of) Japanese cinema and I have seen (and enjoyed) many Japanese films.
Having said all that, this film is totally snobbish nonsense. Starting with the title (that has little to do with what is going on there), continuing with loooooong scenes where a fellow chops wood and carries water to a SUV and ending with - well - the final images - nothing has any rhyme or reason.
I was looking forward to this film as it was advertised as having an ecological theme, but, if anything, it does the ecological movement a great disservice: it portrays the ecologists (and their movement) as a bunch of weirdos.
I gave it 2 stars rather than 1 because somewhere in the film it explains where a septic tank should and should not be placed. (I learned something)
(To add insult to injury, at TIFF, the film was "presented" by a young lady who was (mis)reading form a slip of paper a text that she did not write and had no idea what it meant.)