wow this was just an amazing watch. of course, as everyone points out, the editing is great but beyond that i feel like the soundtrack and storytelling is absolutely insaneeee too.

it's a veryyyy confusing yet enjoyable watch. kind of the polar opposite of Late Spring LOL. i definitely really enjoyed it HOWEVER tho i know this was not his intention, there were definitely times when i felt like he was being experimental to be experimental. 4/20/26 update: after writing my midterm on this I think I can appreciate it a lot more. it's such a great depiction of a confusing and melancholy time without explicitly stating much about the time its set in.

i mean i absolutely loveeee episodic movies like night is short, walk on girl and the french dispatch and even hero (to an extent) so i knewwww this would be up my alley the moment the first vignette popped up. just sooo fun to watch and i love the ways the vignettes are connected as well as the character of tampopo. i cannot lie i was lowkey about to shed a tear when the cowboys had to leave.

unfortunately im not moved by this like 99% of people are. i think its because im still traumatized by my first watch of this in 1st grade which gave me nightmares for years to come about taking shortcuts on road trips, parents turning into pigs and no face appearing outside my window on night car rides.

just a nice feel good amelie type movie i wasn't really impressed by anything here and it wasn't as feel good as amelie but solid movie

i can understand why ozu is such a beloved director because he truly breaks rules in such an elegant way. unlike other movies that are trying to break the rules he doesn't yell at you "HEY IM BREAKING A RULE WATCH ME CUS IM SOOOO CRAZY" but instead crafts something so wholly different in a way that you can't help but call him crazy. idk what im saying LOL. hwoever, im really not a huge fan of super slow paced and slice of life movies so it isn't one of my fav movies all time but I really appreciate it and I'm glad i watched it. i think out of all the movies we've watched so far this one has the best writing and development of characters.

actually so surprisingly good LMFAOOO i feel like this movie has def aged very well bc of all the copypastas and stuff but it has some really fun little details that could warrant further analyses (but we wont in class cus campana dgaf about plot...) there's definitely some theme of abandonment in there and i feel like reiko, ryuji, yoichi and sadoko all have a lot of potential to be really good characters. even sadoko's mom, dad and grandparents are interesting. id say my main two issues are 1. the acting and 2. the visions. the acting is just a bit mid IMO, especially from whoever plays reiko. she really has like two facial expressions she alternates between and neither really fit this supposedly very independent, hard working, brave journalist character. she also looks so calm in certain scenes it made my friends think she was evil LOL. the visions being visions are just poor writing IMO. why the hell is reiko, who has no introduction of having psychic powers, experiencing them so much and only now after meeting the grandpa? very plot devicey. i think they 100% could have been worked in muchhhh better. through found footage looking vintage films perhaps?

i was soo scared to watch this silent film but it was actually really quite fun! the little boys were sooo cute and i really liked the realistic conflicts they had with the other boys and their dad. i would probably LOVEEEE if they had like a modern remake with a similar story but with sound, color and a modernized setting. anyways i kinda hate that people say that their dad was belittling himself by being a clown at work. i mean yes, he was a clown but to an extent 90% of people (especially in our class) will become corporate slaves who have to put on a mask for our jobs so why are we making fun of him when we are going to do the same thing?

at first i really loved it. i loved the cutesy vibe of the friends and the fantastical editing and outfits. and i know a lot of people like it for the editing but... i feel like a movie can't just have good editing. thats like a gimmick that can draw you in at first and maybe leave a couple of nice scenes here and there but if the movie has no plot nor storytelling (as it does here) the gimmick just becoming ANNOYING AS HELL! its like if an ice dancer tried to do singles skating IMO. i'd be really intrigued by their edges and posture at first but then they fall on their single axel and id be like well... the magic is lost. the outfits are still cute as helllll tho and I liked the soundtrack. 3/18/26 update after class: ok im bumping it up above rashomon because at least it was interesting but lowkey i just feel icked out by a lot of it now. i dont get why obayashi felt the need to parody "discover japan", whats so wrong with young woman feeling safe enough in the country to travel by themselves LOL. im sure this was part of the point but the movie feels soooo bitter and like boomers on facebook. i get the theme of generation difference but instead of exploring the validity to the older side's bitterness and the vigor of the youth this movie seems more interested in making fun of young people than actually giving them any personality. the fact that obayashi also takes a lot of aesthetic inspiration from girls culture yet completely botches the female characters (which are like... all the characters in the movie) also feels icky. he's exploiting and profiting off the very audience he gives absolutely no fucks to in regards to storytelling. again, i know he's making them stereotypes to critique that but... if you don't build up upon the stereotypes you aren't critiquing, you are just playing into it. but one thing i appreciate is the filming techniques of it all as well as the admission that part of the bitterness of the older generation is not truly valid (i think the auntie killing the stepmom shows this cus the stepmom isn't even part of this young and stupid generation). i truly think obayashi was meant to make kpop music videos. he would absolutely DEVOUR an aespa music video like! or imagine him on ive's accendio. ugh.

i think if this were like 1950 and this movie just came out maybeeee i'd like it more but the interesting aspects of this movie just don't feel interesting anymore. one story told from multiple perspectives already exist, notably in one of my favorite movies of all time hero. and i'm sure they existed in books long before. the filming is pretty but also nothing i'm like wowed by. like, hero did it better sorry. if this were just a movie i watched without knowing its reputation it would prob be 3.5 but it does NOTTTT live up to its acclaim, especially now.