The Sea Is Watching
Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment | Release Date: July 18, 2003 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
57
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 16 Critic Reviews
Positive:
8
Mixed:
7
Negative:
1

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
An exquisite period film from a script Akira Kurosawa did not live to direct. It has a softer edge than the master probably would have delivered, but it is deeply affecting. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
The movie, done in a classic measured style, finally moves you almost as much as if it had stayed in Kurosawa's hands. Filled with love and melancholy, it's a fitting, fond epilogue to the "sensei" (the master). Read full review
80
Washington PostMichael O'Sullivan
A mostly unsentimental little gem. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeJanice Page
As rich and literary a work as you might expect. Read full review
75
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
An absorbing slice of a lost world that's actually very reminiscent of Kurosawa's underappreciated 1957 film, "The Lower Depths." Read full review
70
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
Not just an engaging melodrama that explores the class conflict and sexual mores of feudal Japan, but a work of extraordinary beauty; you could literally hang any random frame on the wall and call it art. No doubt the master would have been pleased. Read full review
70
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
Fortunately, Mr. Kumai, who himself has shown no aversion to baroque melodrama, leans here toward a plain and direct style that is tasteful and intelligent, a boon, given the predictability of the story. He understands the difference between pitiable and pitiful. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Kurosawa was a great artist and so even his lesser work is interesting -- just as we would love to find one last lost play, however minor, by his hero Shakespeare. Read full review
60
Washington PostStephen Hunter
It has the big themes that obsessed Kurosawa at his greatest, and that alone makes it worthwhile. Read full review
60
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
The banal score seems more appropriate for a western, and there's a certain self-conscious theatricality in the mise en scene, yet this is both handsome and affecting. Read full review
50
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
Despite a hopelessly corny score, the movie is redeemed by a goofily touching final scene. Read full review
50
New York PostV.A. Musetto
The screen comes alive only at the end, when a frightening tornado destroys the seaside village. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
There's plenty to appreciate here but the story is tedious and some of the overacting runs into cultural translation problems. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleC.W. Nevius
An unusually cheerful depiction of prostitution. You've never seen such wholesome hookers. Read full review
40
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
Though the episodic, low-key action bears a resemblance to Kurosawa's Madadayo -- his little-seen, underrated final film -- neither the characters nor the plot lend it even a hint of dynamism. Read full review
30
Village VoiceEd Park
Though The Sea (and the sea) wants to capture some elemental, unruly truths, it's ultimately an over-lacquered jidai-geki curio, something for the appendix of the next book on Kurosawa. Read full review
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