This has become one of my all time favorite films. The cinematography is beautiful; it has an interesting plot; I like the characters. I am not crazy about some of Akira Kurosawa's samurai flicks (he wrote this movie) but I adore this film. This is probably my favorite Japanese film. I highly recommend it. I don't think you have to know anything about Japanese culture either. I heard that one criticism of Kurosawa's works is that he doesn't have many roles for women and tends to focus on men. This film really shows his ability to write about women and create wonderful women characters. But the great thing is that it isn't just character development. There is a good plot also. Everyone should see this film
Review of The Sea Is Watching
