The Japanese Wife

If you really care about aesthetics and have been hungering for something that will satiate your finer sensibilities -- battered by now, by the relentless onslaught of kitsch -- you must grab a dekko...

It stays with you. Although the tempo is excruciatingly slow and the screenplay repeats lines of dialogue as if they had been written by a squawking parrot, the result is limned with that near-extinct quality in cinema – humaneness.

It's a lilting fairytale, and like all fantasies, the unlikeness of the premise is striking. But then Aparna Sen doesn’t call this her love poem for nothing.

It's like sitting by the river at night, watching the sun set. Watch it and weep.

Aparna Sen has taken a difficult subject and created a lyrical, rooted film, full of tender moments, whimsy and pathos.

The minutiae of this lyrical film are not something you will find if you look for it in a hurry. Sit back, let the film draw you into its languorous beauty. You will be happy you found the time to do so.

...is an acquired taste. But if you’re the type of viewer who is willing to sacrifice pacing for poignance, I recommend you go for it.

...an emotional journey that keeps you hooked for its sheer novel story.

...a tribute to love in its purest form and a tribute to the lost art of writing letters as well.

In it’s most effective parts, the beautifully-lensed `The Japanese Wife’ is like a haiku, saying a lot without underlining too much, a rare thing in our movies.

There is no denying the fact that The Japanese Wife gets bogged down by its indulgent pace. But stay with it and you will be rewarded.

There is enough to dwell on and smile at, but this Wife is an insipid woman, one with bright eyes and a pretty smile and not nearly enough to actually say. She's refreshingly pleasant, but a large part of sitting down to tea with her will involve looking at your watch and pretending to be interested.

...is engaging and emotive only in parts and not profound enough to linger on in your mind.

...is wonderfully shot, reasonably well enacted, and is sure enough, long (or slow) as hell. Such elements individually draw attention toward themselves because, quite frankly, the script sucks.

It is not often that you see films that you can truly call a labour of love, and even if that is its undoing- there is no question about the fact that this one is straight from the heart.

What could have been a poignant and haunting tale of love, under- standing and marriage between two people from different cultures and countries ends up being just a misconstructed series of verbal exchanges on the soundtrack...

...doesn't come with any scope whatsoever.