The Sea Is Watching (2002)
"Umi wa miteita" (original title)

19th century. Oshin is a prostitute in a brothel of a red-light district. A disgraced samurai, Fusanosuke, rushes in the brothel seeking for a refuge, because he had wounded a powerful ... See full summary »

Director:

Kei Kumai

Writers:

Kei Kumai (screenplay), Akira Kurosawa (original screenplay),

Stars:

Misa Shimizu, Nagiko Tôno, Masatoshi Nagase

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Misa Shimizu	...	Kikuno
Nagiko Tôno	...	Oshin
Masatoshi Nagase	...	Ryôsuke
Hidetaka Yoshioka	...	Fusanosuke
Miho Tsumiki	...	Okichi
Michiko Kawai	...	Osono
Yumiko Nogawa	...	Omine
Tenshi Kamogawa	...	Umekichi
Yukiya Kitamura	...	Gonta
Takayuki Katô
Kumiko Tsuchiya	...	Prostitute
Rikiya Ôtaka	...	Boy
Renji Ishibashi	...	Zenbei
Eiji Okuda	...	Ginji
Teru Satô

Storyline

19th century. Oshin is a prostitute in a brothel of a red-light district. A disgraced samurai, Fusanosuke, rushes in the brothel seeking for a refuge, because he had wounded a powerful samurai. Oshin hides him from the authorities and falls in love with him, against an older prostitute's, Kikuno's, misgiving. Fusanosuke advises Oshin to cleanse herself by giving up her line of work. Believing falsely that this is a promise for marriage, she turns her customers over to the other prostitutes, who are happy to help her. Funasukoke leaves to be reconciled to his family, but, when he returns, he reveals that he is engaged and is going to marry his fiancé. Some time later a desperate itinerant, Ryosuke, appears and Oshin falls in love again. Meanwhile, an older man asks Kikuno to buy her contract and marry her, but she is entangled with an old abusive customer of hers. One night, while the madam of the brothel is away to thermal baths, a storm hits the area and everybody tries to flee. ...

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Plot Keywords:

prostitute | brothel | samurai | flood | rescue | 

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Genres:

Romance | Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for some sexuality

Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

27 July 2002 (Japan)

Also Known As:

The Sea Is Watching

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$161,588 (Japan) (9 August 2002)

Gross:

$1,094,874 (Japan) (9 August 2002)

Company Credits

Production Co:

AII, Japan Road Service, Maru

Technical Specs

Runtime:

119 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The literal translation of the title is "The Sea Was Watching".

User Reviews

lack of knowledge maybe?

I can understand those who dislike this movie cause of a lack of knowledge.

First of all, those girls are not Geisha, but brothel tenants, and one that don't know the difference will not understand half of the movie, and certainly not the end. This is a complete art work about the women's life and needs in this era. Everything is important, and certainly the way they dress, all over the movie means more than words. To those who thought it was a boring geisha movie, I'll suggest you to read a bit about this society before making a conclusion that is so out of the reality. This is Kurosawa's work of is life, and I'm sure that the director understood the silent meaning of Kurosawa's piece to the right intellectual range.