The Sea Is Watching

– Based on Akira Kurosawa's final unproduced script, this Edo-period drama takes place almost entirely..

Type:
Movie
Rating:
7.10 / 10
Duration:
One Hour and 59 Minutes
Release Year:
2002
Original Name:
海は見ていた
The Sea Is Watching (2002) - Also known as 海は見ていた

Based on Akira Kurosawa's final unproduced script, this Edo-period drama takes place almost entirely inside an ocean-village brothel. O-Shin is a young brothel worker who one night helps a young samurai escape from his pursuers. Against the warnings of her fellow workers, particularly Kikuno and the brothel's owner, O-Shin falls in love with the samurai.

Story Timeline:
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The Sea Is Watching (2002) - Trailer

Release Date:

27 Jul 2002

Language:

Japanese

MPAA Content-Rating:
R – Restricted

Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian. Contains some adult material. Parents are urged to learn more about the film before taking their young children with them.

Director:

Kei Kumai

Writer:

Kei Kumai (screenplay), Akira Kurosawa (original screenplay), Shûgorô Yamamoto (novels)

Main Actors:

Misa Shimizu, Nagiko Tôno, Masatoshi Nagase, Hidetaka Yoshioka

Plot:

19th century. Oshin is a prostitute in a brothel of a red-light district. A disgraced samurai, Fusanosuke, rushes in the brothel seeking for a refuge, because he had wounded a powerful samurai. Oshin hides him from the authorities and falls in love with him, against an older prostitute's, Kikuno's, misgiving. Fusanosuke advises Oshin to cleanse herself by giving up her line of work. Believing falsely that this is a promise for marriage, she turns her customers over to the other prostitutes, who are happy to help her. Funasukoke leaves to be reconciled to his family, but, when he returns, he reveals that he is engaged and is going to marry his fiancé. Some time later a desperate itinerant, Ryosuke, appears and Oshin falls in love again. Meanwhile, an older man asks Kikuno to buy her contract and marry her, but she is entangled with an old abusive customer of hers. One night, while the madam of the brothel is away to thermal baths, a storm hits the area and everybody tries to flee. Ryosuke kills Kikuno's customer who tries to steal madam's money and runs away. Oshin and Kikuno stay at the roof hoping for a rescue from the flood. Ryosuke returns by a boat.

Awards:

1 nomination.

Production:

Sony Pictures Entertainment

Ratings:
Internet Movie Database:
7.1/10
Rotten Tomatoes:
56%
Metacritic:
57%