Rhapsody In August on DVD (1993)

A customer from London , 14/12/2004

As alway Kurosawa pulls you in and immerses you in the lives of his characters, which are sometimes on the face of it not that amazing, but you grown fond of them so quickly. I was skeptical at first as I thought the use of Richard Gere may tarnish Kurosawa's reputation, but I was wrong. A must see as are all his films, True cinema!!!

  3 out of 3 people found this review helpful

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Natalya from Midlands , 30/10/2005

Simply shot and simply told story, very touching.

  1 out of 1 person found this review helpful

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Michael Holding from Oxford , 14/03/2006

Very slow, deliberate pace to the film. The viewer is drawn into the lives of the family, in a simple yet, affecting way.

Richard Gere? Did he just want to be in a film by one of the great directors in the world? Can't really blame him for that.

It's a cliche, I know, but the film stays with you.

  1 out of 1 person found this review helpful

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A customer from Lanarkshire, Scotland , 11/02/2005

Excellent and thoroughly enjoyable and gentle Japanese film with a slightly surreal premise - that Japanese children knew little about their family's suffering in the A-bombing during WWII. Totally ruined when Richard (only my teeth can act) Gere appeared and sucked the interest out of the film.

  1 out of 2 people found this review helpful

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Michael Holding from Oxford , 14/03/2006

Very slow, deliberate pace to the film. The viewer is drawn into the lives of the family, in a simple yet, affecting way.

Richard Gere? Did he just want to be in a film by one of the great directors in the world? Can't really blame him for that.

It's a cliche, I know, but the film stays with you.

  1 out of 1 person found this review helpful

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Zamy from London [Highly rated reviewer] , 06/06/2006

This little film of a family revisiting the atomic bomb on Nagasaki 40 years on shows Kurosawa in a reflective and resigned mood. He has had a great career and seems happy just to let the cameras role and take in his little story. On the way we get some insight into the way time can change so much for one family even one visited by the 'final solution' to the 2nd world war that the USA visited on Japan. Perhaps Kurosawa noticed that the acting was not that great and let it pass, content just to be still working after a lifetime in films. Not an unmissable film, then. Still worth a look in this DVD medium and perhaps worth comparing with some other last films by great directors. For my money the creator still at the height of his powers was Bunuel with 'That Obscure Object of Desire'. John Ford directed an odd, stagey western '7 Women' as his last film. Howard Hawks chose the same genre and basically remade old work with his rather slack 'Rio Lobo'. Hitchcock's teasing black comedy 'Family Plot' is not among his best work though arguably better than some of his other late films like 'Frenzy' and 'Torn Curtain'.

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