I Am Waiting (1957) User Reviews

Visually raw and a well worn sort of story to carry the personal drama

[secondtake · 7/10 · 21 March 2019]

I Am Waiting (1957)

A Japanese kind of noir flavored crime drama that uses tropes and cliches to their max. And it works. There is the woeful beautiful woman and the troubled handsome man, and they meet in ways that make their relationship complicated. Some thugs get in the way, the past has its grim details resurface, and a couple of side characters give the main pair color and life.

It's kind of great in a B-movie way. The filming (camera and lights) by Kurataro Takamura is terrific, and helps hold it up even if the writing is sometimes a bit obvious. The acting is solid, maybe even very good, but the characters are made to play types that don't allow for as much development as you might like.

In all these ways the film is a lot like the average noir. But it doesn't hold a candle to a great American noir. The editing is sometimes awkward, the story a hair too simple (despite all the unnecessary flashbacks), the good and bad guys a bit too simple in their motivations. I think you can love this movie for exactly these things, but know it ahead of time.

Takamura is terrific, it has to be repeated. The long fight scene near the end, and the final long take before the credits, are both first rate stuff. This is director Koreyoshi Kurahara's first film, and if a novice feeling sometimes shows, the movie also reveals a bold talent and reckless love of cinema, which is really all that matters.

Give this one some time....

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 6 March 2011]

Jôji is a washed up boxer. One night he meets Saeko down by the harbor--and she's contemplating killing herself as she's lost her voice--and that's terrible for a professional singer! You don't learn all this up front--it slowly unfolds as the film progresses. However, what neither knows is that her employer and Jôji's plan to move to a farm in Brazil are actually inextricably linked. There is MUCH more to the plot than this, but I'd rather say nothing more about this--as the plot is pretty interesting and offers lots of nice twists and my discussing the plot would ruin the suspense.

This is a movie that creeps up on you slowly. At first, it seems like an ordinary sort of film about two losers who somehow find each other. However, keep watching--the plot changes into less of a romance and more a film noir treasure. The dark lighting, criminals who come into their lives and the dark turn of the plot all work together to make a dandy film--well written, well acted and very exciting in its direction.

Good, if a little slow

[zetes · 7/10 · 31 August 2009]

The earliest film in Eclipse's new Nikkatsu Noir set, this one stars Yujiro Ishihara and Mie Kitahara, the two stars of the previous year's Crazed Fruit (these are only two of about two dozen films they made together). I Am Waiting is a pretty good crime flick about a retired boxer who meets up with a lounge singer who is trying to run away from her gangster employer. The boxer has been waiting a year for his brother to contact him from Brazil, where he hopes to move and help his brother farm. Turns out that his brother never made it there. His mysterious disappearance is linked with the aforementioned gangsters. The story here is really good, and, in general, it's well directed and performed. It does move a tad too slowly, though, and the two halves of the plot, the romance and the mystery of the missing brother, are connected by a pretty big and hard-to-buy coincidence. It's a good film, but it's one that feels like it could have been done a little bit better (the perfect film for a remake!).

I Am Waiting (1957)

[mevmijaumau · 21 May 2015]

This is the debut feature film from to-be-New Wave director Koreyoshi Kurahara, also responsible for The Warped Ones, one of the craziest films from the 1960s. I Am Waiting is a different piece of work, so if you liked TWO, don't expect anything similar here. I Am Waiting is a film noir reminiscent of those from America or France, so there's nothing truly exotic about the movie in this regard, in fact, the only thing in the film you wouldn't find in a Western production is a game of mahjong.

The film stars Yujiro Ishihara and Mie Kitahara, fresh off their collaboration on Ko Nakahira's Crazed Fruit (1956), amongst many of their other films. The story is a typical noir plot about crime, melancholia and characters haunted by their past mistakes. The plot is based entirely on coincidences, be it the principal three characters all having the same past crime of murdering someone, or the huge coincidence that connects the main two story lines. But it's not really a lazy writing device because the entire plot is based on these coincidental happenings. The film starts off as a romance/character study, but later dissolves into a crime thriller with fisticuffs and investigations. For the most part though, it seems as if the mobster villains weren't in Kurahara's interest as much as the romantic plot was.

The dumbest thing about the movie are the villains; they're completely incompetent and it's almost a joke how much of an advantage the hero has over them. They're unable to kill a person by whacking him on the head with a bat and throwing him unconscious in the sea, but the protagonist is perfectly capable of delivering swift killing punches as he effortlessly disposes of multiple baddies by beating them to death. The entire boxing sub-plot actually reminds me of Kubrick's film noir Killer's Kiss, which came out two years before Kurahara's film.

The movie's pace is slow but naturally escalates in the final scene, in the true spirit of the classic narratives of many other notable crime films of the period. The opening sequence showing water dripping water on a pond is memorable, as well as some minor stylistical choices, such as utilizing ceiling fans to create rotating shadows onto the set, a trick Kurahara used to better effect years later in The Warped Ones.

This movie started off my Nikkatsu Noir experience and while certainly not bad, it isn't anything special either. All in all, I'm definitely interested in seeing more of these films, but this one was just OK.

Exciting And Powerful Gangster Film!

[net_orders · 7/10 · 6 May 2016]

Viewed on DVD. Restoration = ten (10) stars; subtitles = nine (9) stars; sound effects = four (4) stars. Koreyoshi Kurahara's directorial debut, and it's a stunner! A raw, in-your-face gangster movie, but with an unusual psychological twist. Its effect on the viewer is immediate (starting with the initial, haunting scene) and continuous right up to the final, ambiguous fadeout. Once Director Kurahara has drawn the viewer into his film, resistance is futile! The tale is a fists-on violent (there are lots of boxing fights) and mildly romantic (the protagonists may become lovers later on) one of a fascinating chance encounter. Each character has suffered a devastating set back (she as an operatic singer, he as a light-weight boxer) just as their respective carriers were taking off. Acting by the two leads is extremely engaging. Actress Mie Kitahara's performance really shines when she is given significant/meaningful dialog to deliver besides just exhibiting facial expressions and body language. Actors playing supporting roles as mob types deliver uneven performances and often look/act ridiculous (intended commentary by the Director?). The climatic fight scene suffers from overdone symbolism (a ton of paper currency somehow ends up covering the prone hoodlum-boss loser) and phony, non-synchronized sound effects (punches always sound the same and are often heard before being seen!). Garden-variety crooning during the opening and closing credits seems incongruous and out of place in a mob-themed movie. Otherwise, the music is spot-on jazzy. Cinematography (narrow screen, black and white) and lighting are outstanding and major contributors to the film's successful edgy impact. Restoration is excellent and subtitles are very well done. Highly recommended. WILLIAM FLANIGAN, PhD.

Solid if unevenly paced

[jellopuke · 7/10 · 1 December 2020]

A good movie with interesting characters and mood that sort of falls apart at the end when everything gets rushed to a conclusion. It's almost a classic, but just needed a bit more work to push it over the edge.

Japanese Noir

[Hitchcoc · 7/10 · 8 August 2015]

A bar owner on the waterfront takes action to prevent a young woman from killing herself. This leads to a nice relationship, but both characters are carrying around deep secrets. The young man was a promising boxer but one night a man provoked him into a fight and he killed him, losing any chance of realizing his dream. This has led to depression and hope of changing his life in some way. His brother has supposedly gone to Brazil and is getting things ready for them to farm some land. The odd thing is that there has been no word from the him. The young woman is a lounge singer, and she is hooked up with some bad guys who want her back. Neither of them can seem to get rid of their respective pasts. Soon, the two stories become intertwined. This isn't bad but it is slow moving and meandering. Also, there is some unfinished business at the end.

Very satisfying noir

[gbill-74877 · 8/10 · 27 October 2020]

This Japanese noir from director Koreyoshi Kurahara is gritty and cool, taking us to smoky pool halls, sleazy bars, and cabarets filled with young people dancing to western music. Yujiro Ishihara makes quite a leading man; he plays a tough guy with a past he's trying to escape from and a dream of moving to Brazil that's mysteriously disappearing. He oozes confidence as he stands up to gangsters and tries to protect a cabaret singer (Mie Kitahara) who's run away from them. The two make quite a pair and I was surprised to learn from Alicia Malone at TCM that aside from marrying in real life, they made 24 films together. The plot to this one is a little contrived in some ways, such as the number of guys that have been killed in barroom brawls and just how easily gangsters will hand over a gun, but it works nonetheless. Very satisfying.

Decent crime flick

[Jeremy_Urquhart · 6/10 · 4 March 2022]

This came in a boxset of Japanese crime-thrillers that I plan to work through over the next week or so, and as this was the earliest release of the five, I decided to start here.

It's very simple and tells a story about a young man and a young woman who both have connections to various shady characters that they both wish to escape from. Its unapologetically direct and for its time, it probably had a little more impact than it does now.

But it was still far from a bad watch, and it can be appreciated and enjoyed as a well-acted and well-directed film that serves as a decent crime movie for the time it was made. It's also nice to see something unpretentious and straightforward every once in a while, because you often can't make a movie nowadays unless it's got a bit more going on to complicate it.

cafe with neon and the waterfront

[christopher-underwood · 8/10 · 6 January 2024]

What a great Japanese from my box of World Noir No.1 from the splendid Radiance blu-ray company. Right from the start it is wonderful and we see a bar, cafe with neon and on the waterfront and a steam train carrying goods in front of us. Yujiro Ishihara one of the stars that I have never seen before is great and we see Mie Kitahara the lovely girl I have once seen her in Crazed Fruit (1956 ). Together we see them both wearing those noir macs. The dialogue is fine and just the style and hard as we like it, the cinematography is also just as we like it as the tropes and the cliche but some new and different. He used to be a boxer and can fight and she used to sing, 'I'm a canary that forgot to sing' but she does remember. And there are the thugs that make us smile but they can be tough and towards the end the dialogue changes and the fight ends in the jazz club. I know it was a bit silly now and again but I loved it.

"Talking about it might make you feel better"

[evening1 · 5/10 · 30 January 2021]

The directorial debut of Koreyoshi Kurahara doesn't know what it wants to be -- psychological love story, or gangster fight tale.

This production splices one onto the other for a less-than-satisfying whole.

I far preferred the movie's first half, as we observe how a disaffected ex-boxer, Joji (Yujiro Ishihara), rescues the suicidal beauty Saeko (Mie Kitahara) -- "a canary that's forgotten how to sing." As they offer each other support, a bond grows, and we're curious where it will lead.

Joji has a dream to join his brother, whom he believes has moved to Brazil to farm, but for unknown reasons has fallen out of touch. (Perhaps there's a grain of truth to this plot twist; I learned from Wikipedia that Brazil hosts the world's largest expat Japanese community.) Saeko's aspiration is more local -- she wants freedom from a vicious thug who keeps her under "contract."

The movie deteriorates when it drops the love story for Joji's quest for revenge, and the audience must weather serial fist fights.

The film ends happily, with our prince freeing his princess, and the surrounding community, from a scourge. It's a little too facile, given the choppiness of the narrative. Still, I'd say this jazzily scored neo-noir is worth a view.

Imitative and implausible film noir from Japan

[samkap-25138 · 5/10 · 31 July 2022]

A simple story (though its premise gives hope of something better) whose length depends to an uninteresting degree on portraying endlessly brutal fights between the protagonist (on the whole, a likable fellow) and gangsters dressed in clothes borrowed from American film noir. The love story which begins the narrative gets no more than a glance while following the protagonist's quest to find and then avenge his brother, but that relationship is also left barely examined in favor of the fights in various locales. Nor does the film explain in any way the enslavement of the singer. I was left with many irritated questions, including the fundamental one of wondering why directors think humans can sustain dozens of repeated blows to the head and gut and continue to fight for another ten minutes as though it was the first round. It's a form of laziness, a substitute for knowing and telling the story. .