Maborosi

Audience Reviews

View More

Krakatoa S @KrakatoaSkywalker Jan 15, 2026 A meditation on grief and unanswerable loss. Shot with austere beauty through long static takes and minimal dialogue, every frame is composed with painterly precision. Koreeda's restraint is profound. He trusts silence, trusts stillness, trusts the viewer to sit with ambiguity. The film refuses easy answers, instead offering an honest acknowledgment that some questions remain forever unanswerable. The pacing demands patience but rewards it with devastating beauty. This is cinema at its most essential - stripped down to light, shadow, and the weight of what cannot be spoken. Like the phantasmic light of its title, the film itself becomes something luminous and mysterious, impossible to fully grasp but impossible to forget. I believe this is not only Koreeda's best movie, but the best movie ever made, just because it's impossible to make a greater movie. It's perfect on every level imaginable. An absolute gem, and I would sacrifice my left kidney to see on 35mm in a cinema. See more Stephen C @bob25009 Jul 1, 2025 Success in 1 hour and 49 minutes. See more Kevin L @Lakeman May 18, 2025 A lovely, quiet meditation on grief and questions with no apparent answers. Yumiko suffers a tragic loss and appears to move on. She has a family, her beloved neighbors, and a sense of peace about her. But a visit to a place from her past reveals she still grieves her loss and cannot reconcile the reasoning behind it. And she is has grief from another great loss that is visited upon her in her dreams. Kore-eda's first film after being known more for documentary work is an impressive debut as a dramatic film director. The camera is kept at a distance throughout most of the movie. Often it is far removed from the characters. This is done to create a greater sense of emotional expression that doesn't depend on using close-ups of crying faces to express the character's feelings. There's great respect for his characters as they reflect the lives of actual people who must find their reasons and purpose for living each day. 3.4 stars See more Kathy D @RT06780364 Dec 3, 2023 Beautiful cinematography, but extremely slow with many long shots that seemed to go on and on. Many reviews say the main character was happy and in love with her 2nd husband, but I don't agree. She cared for that man, but was not in love with him, and not reconciled with her 1st first husband's suicide (if it was such) even at the end of the film. See more acsdoug D @acsdoug Sep 9, 2023 Promising premise, but nothing really happens, not even any real drama. It's just a series of subdued and at times bleak set pieces that don't really go anywhere. See more Nov 22, 2021 I saw this movie in 1995 and It was the worst, there's a scene that nothings happens for what it seems to be ages. I love fine cinema, however this movie is just a waste of film. See more Read all reviews

Maborosi

My Rating

Read More Read Less WRITE A REVIEW EDIT REVIEW POST RATING