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Japanese Story (Special Edition)
List Price: $24.96Our Price: $11.99 You Save: $12.97 (52%)Prices subject to change.
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Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 9781404953109
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
ISBN: 1404953108
Label: Sony Pictures
Languages: English (Subtitled), English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Sony Pictures
Region Code: 99
Release Date: May 11, 2004
Running Time: 100 minutes
Studio: Sony Pictures
Theatrical Release Date: 2003
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Editorial Review:
The incandescent Australian actress Toni Collette (from The Sixth Sense and Connie and Carla) has one of her biggest, juiciest roles in this delicate character study. She plays a geologist stuck babysitting a Japanese businessman when he visits the Australian outback. Some passable road movie stuff and a slow-developing romance keep the slender premise going for a while, and then a single event--which comes quite out of the blue--changes everything. This event also stops the story dead in its tracks, a problem director Sue Brooks can't find a way around. As with so many Aussie road movies, the desert scenery is spectacular and beautifully photographed. But the main reason to see this mood piece is Toni Collette, who creates a vivid character, by turns rowdy and contemplative, a woman who sees life as a lark and discovers that there may be something more to it. --Robert Horton
Toni Collette plays Sandy Edwards, an ambitious geologist who suddenly finds herself having to baby-sit Hiromitsu (Gotaro Tsunashima), a taciturn Japanese businessman. Hoping to strike up a business deal, she agrees to take him on a field trip around Western Australia's remote Pilbara Desert. Against the background of the outback, these two diametrically opposed strangers are to find themselves thrust together in a potentially life or death situation. As they journey further and further into the desert, they leave more and more of what they know about each other and themselves behind. Winner of Eight Australian Film Institute Awards including Best Actress (in a leading role), Best Cinematography and Best Film.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Lost in Translation -- only better.
Every Toni Collette fan has "The Japanese Story" in his library, but for the rest of you: buy or find a copy of this DVD before it's too late. These kind of movies tend to disappear over time. It's a chick flick with some of the most stunning outback scenery since the Apple Macintosh Promo "From Alice To Ocean" many years ago. The screenplay has a "Lost in Translation"- feel but is more subtle, more subdued.
Rating:  - Decent enough film though lacking some credibility
The film has a lot going for it: good acting and lots of beautiful background shots of Australia. There are a few things I just didn't get. Why does an experienced geologist drive into the outback after she tells the inexperienced tourist/investor who wants to go there that there are no roads? Doesn't she have the sense to say no?
How does she not have enough knowledge of Japanese to understand what her guest is saying on his cell phone but has enough knowledge of the language to ... Read More
Rating:  - Pretty slow, not much substance
I could not quite figure out what this movie was shooting for.
If it was supposed to be about cultural or wealth differences between two countries overcome by the similarities between their individual inhabitants, then it hardly offered any fresh perspectives. We get a glimpse of the Japanese man's stressful life back home and a hardly novel observation that Australia offers open spaces while Japan is cramped with no room. Not exactly ground breaking stuff.
If it was ... Read More
Rating: - Collette's good but that's about it.
The only reason I bought this movie is because Toni Collette is in it and I am a big fan of hers. Plus the movie got good reviews so I figured it couldn't miss. I was wrong. This film is very boring and very slow and from what I can tell relies on one shocking unexpected moment and some good acting from Collette to make it a good movie. It's not nearly enough. Collette is good but it is not her best work. The japanese leading mans performance is average at best. I don't want to give away what happens ... Read More
Rating: - Shockingly Pedestrian : An Experiment Gone Wrong
I seriously think this film is overrated - not only that, it features Toni Colette's worst ever performance and introduces us to the most bland Japanese leading man of all time.
The problems are many - a weak script, a 'shock value' storyline that is actually mindnumblingly boring, and tepid performances from both the lead actors who seem as if they are sleepwalking through the entire low budget production.
I am a huge fan of independent film, but Australia has been making some ... Read More
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