Raffles Hotel (1989)

User Rating:

5.3/10   

Director:

Ryû Murakami

Writers:

Ryû Murakami (novel)
Hisashi Nozawa (writer)

Release Date:

29 October 1989 (Japan)

Plot Keywords:

Based On Novel

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Miwako Fujitani	...	Moeko Honma
Jinpachi Nezu	...	Toshimichi Kariya
Masahiro Motoki	...	Takeo Youki
Fawn Wong	...	Christy Mato

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese | English

Color:

Color

Filming Locations:

Singapore

Company:

Shochiku-Fuji Company

One would have expected an established writer to at least have a decent dialogue

Like at least one other reviewer I was mislead by the DVD sleeve into expecting, 'graphic acts of sex and violence'. If only, at least the periods of confusion and pretentiousness would have been thereby mitigated, at least to some extent. This is a fine writer but on the evidence of this movie, by no means a fine director. This seemed so aimless and, dare I say, facile, that I was not even sure there was a direction or particular 'message' to be discovered. More likely this seemed an attempt at an art house movie without anything visual to impart. One would have expected an established writer to at least have a decent dialogue going between vivid characters even if the visual poetry was stunted. But no, unless I am very much mistaken, this was somebody expecting to achieve much without much input on their part. Positively, having visited Singapore, I was interested to see the local scenes, but that was about it, I'm afraid.