Umoregi (2005)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

Kôhei Oguri

Writers:

Kôhei Oguri (screenplay)
Tsukasa Sasaki (screenplay)

Release Date:

25 June 2005 (Japan)

Genre:

Drama

Cast

Tadanobu Asano	...	San-chan
Tokie Hidari
Mitsuru Hirata
Karen	...	Machi
Ittoku Kishibe
Tomoko Nakajima
Takashi Nishina
Taka Okubo		(as Taka Ôkubo)
Sumiko Sakamoto
Akira Sakata
Yoshi Sakô
Yûko Tanaka
Hiromitsu Tosaka	...	Tomo

Directed by
Kôhei Oguri

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Kôhei Oguri		screenplay
Tsukasa Sasaki		screenplay

Original Music by
Arvo Pärt		(as Aruvo Peruto)

Cinematography by
Norio Teranuma

Film Editing by
Nobuo Ogawa

Production Design by
Koichi Takeuchi		(as Kôichi Takeuchi)
Yoshinaga Yokoo

Sound Department
Masato Yano	....	sound

Visual Effects by
Art Durinski	....	visual effects supervisor
Norio Ishii	....	visual effects director

Camera and Electrical Department
Meichô Tomiyama	....	lighting director

Production Companies

• Umoregi Seisaku Iinkai

Distributors

• Pyramide Distribution (2005) (France) (theatrical)
• trigon-film (2007) (Switzerland) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• Gold View Company Ltd. (2005) (worldwide) (all media) (sales)
• trigon-film (2008) (Switzerland) (DVD) (special edition)

Also Known As:

The Buried Forest (International: English title)

Runtime:

France:93 min (Cannes Film Festival)

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Certification:

Switzerland:7 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:7 (canton of Geneva)

Company:

Umoregi Seisaku Iinkai

boring

I just saw this film at the Starz Denver International Film Festival 2005. It was the most boring film I've seen in a while, and I even like slow paced movies. My wife fell asleep a couple times during the show, as did the friend sitting on the other side of me.

I have a feeling this film would mean a lot more to someone who understood the implications of the Japanese cultural references, like the various traditional festivals and holidays. The credits said this film was based on a book, and I suspect the movie makes more sense if you read the book first.

About 3/4 of the way through this film, I realized it's truly a film about nothing. And I don't mean that in the same way that "Seinfeld" was proud to be a TV show about nothing. This film, referred to by the English language title "Buried Forest", really had no plot I could discern. It just had a vague theme - dreams and stories.

I could imagine worse films and worse ways to spend a couple hours and ten bucks, but not many. So I'm giving this film 3/10.