WasAnnon Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.

Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

Glucedee It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

Cliff Sloane The film is obviously based on several distinct stories, which would make it a good TV series if done right. The potential is there, making me wish I could read the original short stories. But in this script, there were far too many overly sentimental plot twists and "mass appeal" characterizations.My biggest complaint is that the women were much more like waitresses or airline attendants than they were like prostitutes. They were all weepy "heart of gold" types, quite unlike women who really are "in the life."***** Spoilers here ***** Of the two main stories, the first one was just implausible. Why would the women hold out such hopes for O-shin's marriage to the young samurai? More to the point, why were these women of the streets so distraught over such mundane bad news?In the last story, why on Earth would the fallen-again O-shin lose her head to yet another man? As I said, this is more in keeping with flight attendants than prostitutes.I also found the music terrible, so sweet it made my stomach hurt. It's as though the director couldn't decide whether this was to be like a daytime soap opera or a "slice of life" portrayal of a voiceless strata of society.In conclusion, this seems to be part of a genre that is more common in Asia than elsewhere, fantasies in which kind-hearted naive men help to soften the hearts of prostitutes. I have seen several Thai movies and a few Chinese ones that fit this mold. Compare it to the British film "My Son the Fanatic" and you can see why I find this stuff silly.

MartinHafer Artistically speaking, this is a beautiful movie--the cinematography, music and costumes are gorgeous. In fact, this movie is prettier than those directed by Akira Kurasawa himself. In this case, he only wrote the movie as it was made several years after his death.So, as far as the writing goes, the dialog was well-written and the story, at times, was interesting. However, the story was also rather depressing yet uninvolving in some ways--after all, it's the story of a group of women who work in a brothel. It's interesting that although prostitution has been seen as a much more acceptable business in Japan, the women STILL long for a better life. This reminds me a lot of the movie Streets Of Shame, though Streets Of Shame's characters are a lot less likable and more one-dimensional.So, overall it gets a 7--mostly due to everything BUT the writing. It's too bad that the weakest link in this movie is the story by the great Kurasawa.

wilted_iris Contrary to some people's summaries, the women depicted in the film are not geisha. They are oiran (prostitutes) living outside the most famous pleasure districts, and their lives and experiences represent the lives of a great number of Tokugawa era women. I can't say the stories were particularly enlightening, but their charm lies in just how typical they are. The themes are universal and everyday: love, friendship, and sacrifice.I did greatly enjoy the art direction and the acting. I felt like I was getting a glimpse of a time and place I can never otherwise glimpse. The actors, especially the 4 women who played the main oiran, were a thrill to watch. I'd only recommend this movie to people who want a taste of Japanese culture, or to those who enjoy quiet and emotional stories. It's a great example of both.

AltuKayar I did not like the movie `The Sea is Watching' very much because it was a rather slow movie. Its slowness is bad because I could not taste some of the feelings because of that slowness. Love was one of that feelings I am talking about. The movie is about the sense of belonging, freedom, and love however, there are also cultural things prevailed in it and those cultural elements are like big woodden beams in a river that prevent it to flow properly and decrease the speed of the stream. For instance, the non-talking communication between people prolonge the speeches and it makes all the thing slower.As aforementioned the film was not an outstanding movie about the common human emotions and desires like love, freedom or belonging. I rather consider this movie as a more documentary type movie about Japanese geishas. I can say that I have learned nearly everything about geishas because 95% of the movie was shot in a geisha village and geisha house and the movie is full of speeches, traditions, rules and things about geisha life.Besides that there are also a couple of samurais in the movie but little insight is given about them. The samurais in the movie are also weak characters and they are also very young, far from wisdom. Samurais were not that satisfactory for me.In addition to these, there were also good things about this movie. First of all, most of the movie is shot in a single house in general but the interesting thing was that during the movie the characters gather in different parts of the hosuse and this gatherings are long. Therefore, while watching the movie you can (at least I can) feel like I am someone from the house and I am with them because I knew the house very well, I mean you could get into the house, it is very well shown to the audience I think.There were also good symbolic visiuals in the movie like the sea symbolizing the freedom or the bushes between the sea and the village as the symbol for the obstacles in the way to freedom. And all the story is connected with these symbols at the end of the film. I good script but unexciting execution I can say.