Movies usually follow a guideline which is usually set by most other movies. Namely Hollywood pieces. Mizu no Onna follows the same guidelines in part, but is otherwise an entirely unique film. It is a very aesthetic movie, and the story lies not in the what is said, but what the viewer sees. It is a movie based on moods and feelings. Watching it will surely inspire any aspirating filmmaker. You will not like this movie if you expect to watch another show following the same guidelines for storytelling as any other movie. This is extraordinary, and extraordinarily beautiful. The performance by UA and Asano Tadanobu, the music by Kanno Yoko, and not least the visuals of this movie in itself makes this a movie one to watch.
8 Reviews
A lyrical "fantasy" movie.
elflord8 December 2002
Warning: Spoilers
Possible spoilers. I saw this film at the Intenational Film Festival in Thessaloniki. The movie participated at International competion and won the first award. It is really a very good film and the best that i saw at the International section.
Is a story about a woman who whenever something big happens to her life she summons rain. In a crucial stage of her life she meets a man. A pyromanic and is wanted by the police. A strange and intriguing relationship occur...
A slow movie with great photography, great scenario and great work by the director. A little gem!
Is a story about a woman who whenever something big happens to her life she summons rain. In a crucial stage of her life she meets a man. A pyromanic and is wanted by the police. A strange and intriguing relationship occur...
A slow movie with great photography, great scenario and great work by the director. A little gem!
Woman of Water is strange!
ghannah9 April 2005
Strange art film from Japan about a woman who can make it rain when she gets emotional. She meets a pyromaniac and they strike up a strange relationship. All this symbolism about fire and water was a bit heavy handed but it did intrigue me. Oddball stuff that caught me off guard.I saw it at a film festival and knew nothing about it beforehand. Not a lot of dialogue so it was one of these films where you had to watch the images carefully to know what was happening. It was actually propelled by the visuals rather than dialogue. Interesting but not for everyone. I'd actually like to see it again because I think there was more to it than met the eye and it deserves more than one viewing .
Come on, it wasn't _that_ bad
kurai_hisui19 September 2004
It bugs me when people complain about Hollywood drivel, but then tear apart any movie that wanders too far from the plot diagram you learned in junior high language arts. Like most foreign films, Japanese dramas require a different sensibility to get the most out of them. Mizu no Onna is almost a textbook example. Sure, it has it's problems. It is a good half-hour too long, the nameless biker chick played by Hikaru is pretty much unnecessary, and I actually hit a point where I wished Ryo would put her s**t back on already. (and on a technical note, the contrast in the first third of the film was way to harsh). But the reviews people have written already make me feel like I should be defending it.
This is very much a character piece. The plot is low key, the dialogue minimal (and, as someone else mentioned, not everything is given the Dr. Watson scientific explanation, which I actually thought was a plus). But the two main characters are interesting and, with a couple of blips, well developed. UA and Tadanobu Asano do brilliant jobs of portraying two contrasting people drawn together by their respective marginalisation. This is almost entirely done through body language and the cinematography (though yes, some of the mood setting shots of rain do drag on. It's wet, we get it.) The plot isn't particularly convoluted, and quite easy to follow as long as you actually listen to the dialogue.
There are some cultural nuances that some people won't get. The bath-house culture, in particular, with all it's nostalgia and community spirit, is hard to convey unless you've been to one, and this is rather important to understanding the character development. A lot of Japanese films, even artsy ones, are quite accessible to foreign audiences, but gMizu no onnah is perhaps more 'Japanese' than most. If you can accept that, and sit through the first 20-30 minutes or so (after which it seems to find it's rhythm), it's a very attractive and thoughtful film. There are worse ways to spend a rainy afternoon.
This is very much a character piece. The plot is low key, the dialogue minimal (and, as someone else mentioned, not everything is given the Dr. Watson scientific explanation, which I actually thought was a plus). But the two main characters are interesting and, with a couple of blips, well developed. UA and Tadanobu Asano do brilliant jobs of portraying two contrasting people drawn together by their respective marginalisation. This is almost entirely done through body language and the cinematography (though yes, some of the mood setting shots of rain do drag on. It's wet, we get it.) The plot isn't particularly convoluted, and quite easy to follow as long as you actually listen to the dialogue.
There are some cultural nuances that some people won't get. The bath-house culture, in particular, with all it's nostalgia and community spirit, is hard to convey unless you've been to one, and this is rather important to understanding the character development. A lot of Japanese films, even artsy ones, are quite accessible to foreign audiences, but gMizu no onnah is perhaps more 'Japanese' than most. If you can accept that, and sit through the first 20-30 minutes or so (after which it seems to find it's rhythm), it's a very attractive and thoughtful film. There are worse ways to spend a rainy afternoon.
Heavy on visuals, light on story
freakus21 April 2003
This films story is not very engaging but I found myself enjoying many of it's moments purely for the visual poetry. The scenes of men and women in the bath house, the 9crazy?) woman's living space complete with chickens, the incarnations of the painting of Mt. Fuji on the wall...all these images will stay with me for awhile after I have forgotten what the film was about. UA gives a good performance as a woman haunted by the rain and Asanobu does a good job with what little is given him in the way of character. Don't expect to come away moved by the drama of the film but you may feel as if you have been to a rather good gallery showing.
Elegant, visually powerful, but still a near-miss
rnadiv3 December 2004
She's water, he's fire, and if you expect to get more plot than this, forget it. This is very much a character and atmosphere piece, and the story that comes
together around Hidenori Sugimori's astounding visuals is powerful and well
told, without the typical (and western) dramatic elements that drive a narrative forward. The climatic scenes here are about texture, not tension.
I loved this film and felt it to be in the same strong but under-appreciated
showings of, say, Terrence Malick and David Gordon Green--filmmakers that
know something about light and sound and the importance of these to good
cinematic story telling. We should expect more from visual narrative, and Mizu No Onna doesn't disappoint; still, there's something missing here that takes
away from the elegance that might have been more fully achieved. I think it's in the attempt to find a beginning, middle and end to a story which should have
built quietly to an emotional intensity, then broke off, as happens in life.
Closure is a western psychological requirement (why denouement?); life is seldom so
neat. In trying to give too much mythic and story significance to its characters, the film undoes its own beautifully told story. The symbols of the Elements (fire, water) are everywhere, and they're not always given to us poetically. We're hit over the head with them, and more: we're given a village idiot, who will, in the best narrative tradition, foretell or undo; a strange demi-god. There's no need for any of this, especially since the visuals and sound do such a good job at giving over the story. Still, this is a powerful and successful effort.
Special mention goes to Yoko Kanno whose classically-drawn score completes
the powerful sight and sound experience.
together around Hidenori Sugimori's astounding visuals is powerful and well
told, without the typical (and western) dramatic elements that drive a narrative forward. The climatic scenes here are about texture, not tension.
I loved this film and felt it to be in the same strong but under-appreciated
showings of, say, Terrence Malick and David Gordon Green--filmmakers that
know something about light and sound and the importance of these to good
cinematic story telling. We should expect more from visual narrative, and Mizu No Onna doesn't disappoint; still, there's something missing here that takes
away from the elegance that might have been more fully achieved. I think it's in the attempt to find a beginning, middle and end to a story which should have
built quietly to an emotional intensity, then broke off, as happens in life.
Closure is a western psychological requirement (why denouement?); life is seldom so
neat. In trying to give too much mythic and story significance to its characters, the film undoes its own beautifully told story. The symbols of the Elements (fire, water) are everywhere, and they're not always given to us poetically. We're hit over the head with them, and more: we're given a village idiot, who will, in the best narrative tradition, foretell or undo; a strange demi-god. There's no need for any of this, especially since the visuals and sound do such a good job at giving over the story. Still, this is a powerful and successful effort.
Special mention goes to Yoko Kanno whose classically-drawn score completes
the powerful sight and sound experience.
Very very boring
simon_booth28 April 2003
The oddly named UA plays a woman who has a profound association with water. She runs a bath house, and every time something important happens in her life it rains. She meets drifter Tadanobu Asano, and the two embark on a strange sort of relationship.
MIZU NO ONNA is a strange little art film, about a couple of alienated characters and... water. Not much else. The plot is wafer thin, the characters equally so. Performances are good but deliberately understated. Little happens and little is learned, over quite a long time. The strange connection UA has with the rain is barely explored throughout most of the film.
There's some nicely filmed sequences and one or two lines of dialogue that aren't totally banal, but ultimately the film is VERY VERY BORING and delivers little in terms of pay off.
Avoid.
MIZU NO ONNA is a strange little art film, about a couple of alienated characters and... water. Not much else. The plot is wafer thin, the characters equally so. Performances are good but deliberately understated. Little happens and little is learned, over quite a long time. The strange connection UA has with the rain is barely explored throughout most of the film.
There's some nicely filmed sequences and one or two lines of dialogue that aren't totally banal, but ultimately the film is VERY VERY BORING and delivers little in terms of pay off.
Avoid.
Water torture
insomnia26 July 2003
Warning: Spoilers
Hidenori Sugimori, the director of "Woman of Water", has a fixation with rain, it seems. There is hardly a scene where it's not pelting down with rain. The story concerns a young woman who runs a bath house. Every time an event of
importance happens to her, the rain buckets down. Why this occurs, is never
fully explained: it just happens. In the beginning, a man and his passenger are driving a van - in the teeming rain, of course. There's a crash (off camera), the aftermath of which, I have to admit, is stunningly staged. Yet no explanation is provided till later in the film, as to the relationship (if there is one), between the driver of a van and the woman who runs the bath house. Arriving home one day, the woman discovers a young man sitting at a table, eating. She's never seen
him before. When she tries to talk to him, he gets up and leaves. She follows him into a cave. Suddenly, he tries to rape her. She fights him off. She then hires him to work in the boiler room of the bath house. (Later, we discover he's a pyromaniac, wanted for arson attacks). They begin a relationship. Life passes slowly by. Patrons arrive to bathe. A painter and his assistant turn up to re-paint the Mount Fuji mural on the bath house wall. True, the film has many visually arresting scenes: the camera slowly tracking through the bath house - the black liquid pouring out of the taps and turning the water the same colour. The man climbing the chimney during a violent storm. "Woman of Water" has already won prizes overseas. In the end, it's too tortuous to watch. If you do see it, be sure to bring a pack-lunch: it's way too long.
importance happens to her, the rain buckets down. Why this occurs, is never
fully explained: it just happens. In the beginning, a man and his passenger are driving a van - in the teeming rain, of course. There's a crash (off camera), the aftermath of which, I have to admit, is stunningly staged. Yet no explanation is provided till later in the film, as to the relationship (if there is one), between the driver of a van and the woman who runs the bath house. Arriving home one day, the woman discovers a young man sitting at a table, eating. She's never seen
him before. When she tries to talk to him, he gets up and leaves. She follows him into a cave. Suddenly, he tries to rape her. She fights him off. She then hires him to work in the boiler room of the bath house. (Later, we discover he's a pyromaniac, wanted for arson attacks). They begin a relationship. Life passes slowly by. Patrons arrive to bathe. A painter and his assistant turn up to re-paint the Mount Fuji mural on the bath house wall. True, the film has many visually arresting scenes: the camera slowly tracking through the bath house - the black liquid pouring out of the taps and turning the water the same colour. The man climbing the chimney during a violent storm. "Woman of Water" has already won prizes overseas. In the end, it's too tortuous to watch. If you do see it, be sure to bring a pack-lunch: it's way too long.
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