For a film to truly be successful with a paper-thin plot/storyline, it usually needs either: a powerful thematic point or lesson, and/or characters you know enough to either completely identify or empathize with, or at least understand. In "A Japanese Story", I got some of the first, but little to none of the second.
Toni Collette's character "Sandy" carries the film (literally, I think she's in all but maybe one scene), but by the film's end I only had a slight grasp of who Sandy really was...and I didn't have the foggiest clue who "Hiromitsu" really was, the Japanese Businessman who randomly (we don't know why) decides to to boss Sandy around into driving them deep into the desert. I can only guess his whole trip was intended to be as some sort of getaway from his personal life, using "business" as something of ruse to get himself to Australia in the first place.
There is a beauty to the simplicity of two strangers falling in love (well, sort of fall in love) while traveling through a desolate backdrop, but I just couldn't quite get over the hump of constantly asking myself in the back of the head "who the hell are these people and why should I care?". There didn't need to be some wild back story (Hiromitsu's upset the Yakuza and is running for his life!), but perhaps a better understanding of his position, his life back home...it would've drawn me into the story more.
I gave it 6/10 because Collette had to do some serious acting and the scenery was amazing, and you can't help but feel some emotional stirring as the film develops, but there just wasn't enough "meat" to really grab me. Also, what is with the archetypal Japanese stereotypes going on this film? Not calling it outright racist...but I think the writers went a little overboard in drawing attention to the fact that we're dealing with two different cultures. Really, I can tell a Japanese from an Aussie apart, thanks.
Toni Collette's character "Sandy" carries the film (literally, I think she's in all but maybe one scene), but by the film's end I only had a slight grasp of who Sandy really was...and I didn't have the foggiest clue who "Hiromitsu" really was, the Japanese Businessman who randomly (we don't know why) decides to to boss Sandy around into driving them deep into the desert. I can only guess his whole trip was intended to be as some sort of getaway from his personal life, using "business" as something of ruse to get himself to Australia in the first place.
There is a beauty to the simplicity of two strangers falling in love (well, sort of fall in love) while traveling through a desolate backdrop, but I just couldn't quite get over the hump of constantly asking myself in the back of the head "who the hell are these people and why should I care?". There didn't need to be some wild back story (Hiromitsu's upset the Yakuza and is running for his life!), but perhaps a better understanding of his position, his life back home...it would've drawn me into the story more.
I gave it 6/10 because Collette had to do some serious acting and the scenery was amazing, and you can't help but feel some emotional stirring as the film develops, but there just wasn't enough "meat" to really grab me. Also, what is with the archetypal Japanese stereotypes going on this film? Not calling it outright racist...but I think the writers went a little overboard in drawing attention to the fact that we're dealing with two different cultures. Really, I can tell a Japanese from an Aussie apart, thanks.