The Sea Is Watching

The oldest cliché of the oldest profession--the prostitute with a heart of gold--is the centerpiece of this film; the twist being that she's wearing a kimono and speaking Japanese. Reverently directed by Kei Kumai, from the last script by master director Akira Kurosawa, The Sea Is Watching is a visually pretty but dramatically pallid film about a woman named Oshin (Nagiko Tono), who works in a small brothel in the red-light district outside Tokyo during the mid-19th century. A girl who falls in love with clients all too readily, she tries to protect a young but disgraced samurai whom she ultimately hopes to marry, and when that relationship fails, takes up with a poor, embittered swordsman who proves much more reliable. While imaginatively realized, with brilliant colors and some gorgeous touches of magic realism toward the close, the film's melodramatic--even mawkish--narrative and tendency to dawdle make it only modestly interesting as a posthumous footnote in the career of a great filmmaker. Optional. (F. Swietek)