Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

Expected more

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Japanese Story is an interesting portrayal of how people can find oneself in unlikely situations. But the main ending point will confuse people on why someone needs to die for the screen writers to convey their points across to their audiences. And do the Japanese men commonly take rumspringas to Australia to sow their wild oats with Aussie women in order to become a better husband and father. This comment comes from the note Hiromitsu leaves for Sandy summing up how she and the desert landscape made him a better person. His wife could sense more than just a business trip occurs out in the nothingness of the desert. I feel like it's a nice prequel to Hall Pass but without the happy ending like what happened to Owen Wilson's character. Hiromitsu scored in Australia in order to put with his boring life in Japan for the rest of his days. I feel the screenplay failed in finding a less abrupt way to causally having Hiromitsu fly off into the eastern sunset and settled for an easy way out in his death.

This is a pretty poor film. It doesn't captivate much. Its story is flawed. The scenario is a mix of stunning Australian landscape and crude American background. The acting by Gotaro Tsunashima is okay as Hiromitsu, but Toni Collette's acting as Sandy is inferior in comparison to her acting in 'The Sixth Sense'. There ain't no true chemistry between the lead actors, even when they forgot all about their mutual hate and fell in love with each other.The only funnier moments are whenever the Japanese guy is saying things about Sandy on the telephone in Japanese so that she doesn't have a clue of what he is saying.The swimming scene confused me because I didn't get how the Japanese guy died. I mean, she jumped in perfectly well and he just died? And how did he get that scratch.

I felt the film had a good plot, storyline, and an unexpected surprise. My problem with the overall film was that the director didn't answer the cause of death and why. I felt that the death itself wasn't necessary. Don't want to spoil the surprise. The film has a clash cultures. He comes from Japan, a crowded country, and she comes from Australia. Toni Collette does a very good as the Australian geologist who must babysit the Japanese businessman who doesn't listen to her advice when needed and gets in trouble. They become unlikely friends during this field trip in Western Australian desert. While I felt the film tried to explain, it never became clear to me which is so frustrating. I only wished that they concluded with answers to questions about the death.

I watched this thinking it would be a great journey. Rave reviews, awards, life changing, etc ... Good God. This was one of the most awful, insufferable Australian movies I have ever seen. And I *am* Australian. I don't like to dis movies made in my home country, but this movie most certainly deserves a damn good thrashing. Mindbogginlingly stereotypical, annoying and boring as watching sh!t fester. Good thing I didn't have to pay money as well to see it (Borrowed a friend's video). I'm glad to see by other reviews I'm not the only one who despised it, annoyed that my time and intelligence were so sorely insulted. Toni Collette's atrocious overacting (nothing personal though), especially in the unconvincing grief scenes did nothing to help this lamo movie, in fact made it worse and I only watched it to see if it got better. Needn't've bothered. The first part of it was boring as hell, then the second half was just plain God damn depressing. I was hoping to learn more about the outback and more about Australian geology and have more scenes with Toni's character's work (she was supposed to be a geologist), rather than this annoying yuppie chick, having major league hissy fits and non-stop winging.And the movie was just *starting* to get good, he was just starting to loosen up and enjoy himself and then he dies ... and it goes even more downhill from there than when it started - hard to believe but true. I was hoping for a sensual, spiritual and moving journey through the outback, not some b!tchy angsty crap that thinks it's good because it's got people screaming in it and call it acting. The "death scene" did not even seem convincing, at first I thought the guy was playing and going to pop up and scare her or something. It did not seem the water was that shallow where he dived - and with arms outstretched? If he was hurt the worst that would have happened is he would have broken an arm or wrist. What a cop out just to kill him off and get out of writing anything more intelligent or insightful. Who gets paid to write these idiotic movies (and gets them produced) when there are literally *millions* of good writers out there who struggle their guts out to get their stuff out there to knocked back at every turn? Very disappointed. This "Story" could have been great with more of a journey, more soul, feeling and more about the outback and what *real* Australian geologists do... As we Aussies say: "Bugger." Waste of time, talent and videotape.The only good thing of this movie was the beautiful outback scenery, the wonder and the danger, and two cultures learning each others differences - other than that it was overrated melodramatic, pathetic hype. Actually, I spent more quality time updating my webpage whilst watching this over-rated boof-brained, sad attempt of what could have been a wonderful story.Want to see a brilliant Aussie movie with non stop action, feeling, and a sense of awe and wonder - watch "Gabriel" Made only four years later with much less money and a lot more soul - literally. I found "Gabriel's Story" much more convincing, heartwarming and awakening.