ThiefHott Too much of everything

Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Neive Bellamy Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Mandeep Tyson The acting in this movie is really good.

leplatypus Sure this one hasn't a fighting / military content but there's a lot of closeness as well: the period, the trips to Japan, the discovery of a another world and also an another love. Likewise, the Japanese way of life is depicted with full of poetry and Yakamoto's soundtracks recalls Zimmer's one. Keira plays the devoted young wife waiting patiently for her husband to come back from his endless trips. So we don't see her often and honestly, if the first trip is interesting, watching the others was tiring and totally repetitive! If « last samurai » moved me deeply with this simple life, here i was quickly bored as the cast isn't great and the hollow missions takes places in winter ! The only connection I had was to marvel about those Japanese wood houses because if the technology is simple, their design is much more complex than our poor cabin and prefigure the mind of this people for electronic.

Anssi Vartiainen Beautiful images are not enough when it comes to movies, and this film is a major example of that. The very first scene of this film, that of a naked woman slowly being revealed from the mists rising from a hot spring, is very moving, artistic even, and filled with promise. We start to speculate, who is this woman, how does she tie in with the plot, what will she mean for our main character. Unfortunately scenes like this are pretty much all we get from this film. There is a plot, certainly, but the plot alone is not enough. An exciting plot is usually enough when we're dealing with an adventure or an action film, though in those cases good characters are also needed.This film, however, is a period piece, a historical drama, and those film, above all else, need good characters and excellent dialogue, because there's rarely anything else in them. Unfortunately this film has neither. The dialogues are barren, banal and lacking any insight worth sharing. I found my attention wandering whenever the characters were trying to have a conversation, because they weren't saying anything meaningful. These conversations offered us no insight into the characters, they were just there to hurry the plot along. But I could have overlooked that if the characters had showed any real promise. They did not, and they were easily the worst part of this film. The main character wasn't actually the worst offender, he was just about average. Rather all the side characters lacked any kind of personality, the Japanese above all else. And that's because they rarely talked at all or if they talked, they didn't talk about anything important. The scenes in Japan were nothing more than gorgeous scenery and silent mood pieces. And that simply wasn't enough. The scenery was beautiful to look at, but even it wasn't anything spectacular or new. I've seen them before in other period pieces set in Japan, many times over.Though, as far as characters go, I must say that the character of Baldabiou (Alfred Molina) was actually pretty entertaining. He felt like a real person. Unfortunately he was the only one of his kind.And then there's the drama, which also fails, because while the main character has our sympathies, it's hard to care for his relationship problems, when we never learn anything about the women in his life. They are there, sure, but they very rarely say anything and quite frankly the romance gets almost completely bypassed to make room for the pretty pictures of snow-topped mountains and steaming hot springs.So is it worth seeing? Depends on what you're looking for. If all you need is a film with moderately interesting plot and good-looking scenery, this might be for you. If you require believable and three-dimensional characters, engaging drama and new world views, I'd stray as far away as possible.

BenAordure I found this film in-understandable.First it seems unrealistic. How it is a single man can travel and trade so easily as we would do shopping in a supermarket ?? I can hardly imagine a white faced non Japanese speaking European surviving long there without at least a translator or a guide helping him. Also I don't doubt of Japanese hospitality but I can't help thinking the inexpressive European trader is really lucky to be so well treated, even lent beautiful women for ease ! I should quickly buy a ticket for Japan :) And why the Dutch man is not deserving the same treatment ?? I don't comment the fact the Japanese Girl and the french Trader could fall in love each other. The Unknown is seducing in itself and this is the theme of the movie after all. But at least I would have expected actors to share emotions with the spectator. Secondly what is the point of the movie ?? We learn nothing about Japan nor France' middle 19th century . Nothing about traveling the world. And the romance story is unbelievable. What the hell a desperate lacking-love housewife would send her husband far away ?? Why ?? What is the goal ?? I imagine the book explains that well, subtly, but the film just does not. Regarding the casting, the supporting roles are all perfect. The leading parts are questionable. They probably are a bit lost by the storyboard, not knowing what to do. But I find the French Trader cruelly lacks of expression and is probably the error of the casting. Keira Knightley, a good actress, tries to do her best and achieves to look tormented but we don't catch what's is really going on because of the scenario. An the Japanese Girl doesn't show "the love flame" in the eyes I'd expect from a woman fallen in love without any talks.Nevertheless I can't say this film was a bore. No. Frankly I even liked it because of the fantastic photography of Japan and of the french house's garden, and because of the beauty of the decor and actors. Hence the very nice note I gave.But what a waste ! With such an interesting background (Japan, France, middle 18th century, traveling, silk's history ...), some very good actors, money involved, and a potentially good director, I think this film had all the necessary ingredients to make a chef-d'oeuvre like "out of Africa" or "Gone with the Wind". This is very frustrating. It would deserve another try.

GoldmundX This movie tries to be an epic, period piece romantic drama. It has some of the main ingredients that are required to pull this off. There's costumes, travels, some beautiful (that's the only reason I gave it a 2/10) landscape shots, a guy, women, a not-too-subtle score to pull big emotions from us, all are present. But the most important ingredient they forgot: there's no heart. There's no passion. There's no chemistry at all. They even didn't take time to develop the Love between the main characters. Guy sees girl in bar (2 seconds). Then they walk past some flowers. Girl likes flowers. Guy eats a flower. They are in love. Sadly, I do not make this up. It is this shallow. And this is supposed to be the base for the rest of the movie. Well, it's just completely unbelievable. The dialogues are cheesy clichés and completely uninspired ("I will always love you" every time the guy goes on a trip; 4 times?), the acting is borderline amateuristic. Watching a movie can be a wonderful experience, it can draw you in, it can get under your skin, can touch something deep inside. This movie wants to be/ do all of that, but it fails completely. Bad movie making. A waste of time.