Akai hashi no shita no nurui mizu (2001)

Note des utilisateurs:

6.8/10   

Réalisateur:

Shohei Imamura

Writers:

Yo Henmi (novel)
Shohei Imamura (writer)

Release Date:

3 novembre 2001 (Japan)

Genre:

Comedie | Drame

Plot:

A down-and-out businessman travels to a seaside town, where he meets a woman with unusual sexual powers.

Plot Keywords:

Water | Bridge | Bum | Racism | Black Comedy

Awards:

1 win & 2 nominations

Avis des utilisateurs:

Quirky yet touching

Ensemble

Kôji Yakusho	...	Yosuke Sasano
Misa Shimizu	...	Saeko Aizawa
Mitsuko Baisho	...	Mitsu Aizawa
Mansaku Fuwa	...	Gen
Isao Natsuyagi	...	Masayuki Uomi
Yukiya Kitamura	...	Shintaro Uomi
Hijiri Kojima	...	Mika Tagami
Toshie Negishi	...	Tomoko Sasano
Sumiko Sakamoto	...	Masako Yamada
Gadarukanaru Taka	...	Taizo Tachibana
Mickey Curtis	...	Nobuyuki Ohnishi
Takao Yamada	...	Kazuo Namamura
Katsuo Nakamura	...	Takao Yamada
Kazuo Kitamura	...	Taro

Autre(s) titre(s):

De l'eau tiède sous un pont rouge (France)
Warm Water Under a Red Bridge (International: English title)

Durée:

Argentina:122 min (Mar del Plata Film Festival) | France:119 min | UK:119 min

Pays:

Japan | France

Langue:

Japonais

Couleur:

Couleur

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Son:

Stereo

Classification:

South Korea:18 | UK:15 | Argentina:13 | Australia:MA | Brazil:18 | France:U | Hong Kong:IIB | Japan:R-15 | Netherlands:12 | Spain:13 | Switzerland:14 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Vaud)

Company:

BAP Inc.

Quirky yet touching

A movie from 75 year old director Shohei Imamura. First observation - it's definitely not the steamy sex-romp that the Hong Kong DVD case might have you believe. Far from it in fact. It's quite a gentle, very quirky somewhat philosophical character driven romance.

A man in his fourties loses his job when the company he works for goes bankrupt. In Japan, with the tradition of 'employment for life', this is not a hard situation to be in - especially with an estranged wife and child nagging for money. On something like a whim he travels to a small village to follow the directions of a friend that just passed away, who told him of a treasure that he left behind 40 years ago, in a house by a red bridge. When he arrives, he meets the woman that now lives in the house and through rather unusual circumstances ends up in bed with her. The woman has a strange secret, a source of shame - and the source of the 'Warm Water' under the Red Bridge. The two embark on a peculiar relationship, and when the man gets a temporary job on a fishing boat he begins to blend in and adapt to the small village way of life.

The movie is a slightly surreal meditation on life and love, and what is really of value in each of them. The message is an encouragement of individuality and independence of thought, an affirmation that 'strange' and 'different' are words closer to 'good' than 'bad'. The characters are all a little bit tragic, beaten down by life, but in their own community they find that life can be beaten back.

It's a slow paced movie, quite touching and gently funny. It's mostly character & dialogue driven, and both are well developed. I believe it's based on a novel, which usually does imply good character and dialogue if the director has enough skill to adapt a written work to a visual one. After nearly 50 years in the business, Imamura clearly has that skill.