Karakara (2012) Reviews

• This movie was on streaming

  wyu-488362018-07-03

  And made me hard. I love it. I get a woman who wants to travel with me and show me around. I teach her English. Win-win.

• Weird Little Title

  kyp-122762018-06-14

  Weird Indie film with a bunch of cliches. There is a closeted man who cannot admit to his homosexuality, which is always sad to see. There is the east asian women who is hot and horny for the non-asian man and eager to taste a real man. Then there is the nice travelogue of the two accidental and forced companions. In the sequel the man should be out with it and explain why he kept saying no to her and sob about having female companionship and the woman should leave her husband officially and satisfy herself in the name of fantasy and experience.

• Obscure Little Gem

  hzv-384412017-10-14

  This is the type of film one watches and wonders what else is out there that no one has ever heard of. The film did several things for me. It reminded me that watching unknown films may be rewarding. It made me wonder if I should travel to Okinawa as the scenery was beautiful (although unfortunately there is a lot of military there) and made me interested in exploring these actors more. The story centres on a Canadian tourist who is in mourning and visits Okinawa and befriends a local lady who becomes his companion on the road. In the process, she teaches him manners and he teaches her joy and sorrow. At times I did wonder if he is homosexual however. When a pretty girl offers to travel with you how can you say no or get angry about it?

• An Excellent Cross-culture Effort

  ronchow2013-06-03

  I enjoyed this Canada-Japan co-production for a number of reasons. First, it brought me the beautiful scenery of Okinawa, a place I know little about previously, and its art of making cloth from the fibre of banana trees. Now I have a strong urge to visit there some day to sample the beauty and tranquillity of that location. Second, this is, in a way, a romance story between an ageing, depressed and lonely baby-boomer from Quebec and a pretty Japanese woman much younger. So it is a story about an older male and a younger female, and hence a formula plot for male fantasy. Mine for sure. Direction by Claude Gagnon, who did C.R.A.Z.Y. in the past, is solid, and acting by both actors very believable. However, because of its subject matter, I don't think the younger folks will enjoy this film as much as the older folks. Although there is no nudity in the films but on two occasions you are treated to the screams (of joy, I assume, and I mean real screams) from a woman at the height of her sexual activities with an older man. So we may have some credibility issue here. Another point is any man that can please a woman to that extent could simply have no reason to be depressed. That would be my thought.

• A mixed-up quest for peace

  rowmorg2013-05-27

  Top marks for Claude Gagnon for this quiet study of an ageing teacher who has been rejected by his family and lost friends to death, and is in Japan taking a retreat. Realistically, he meets a pair of Japanese women, one of whom speaks English, having visited the USA several years earlier. She agrees to show him round. At the end of the day, she becomes emotional, says how comfortable she feels with the old man, and he grabs her and kisses her passionately. She makes an incredible row as they make love, he is confused, but she is shouting for him not to stop. A day or two later, she appears in his hotel nursing a wound sustained when her brutal husband attacked her. The old man (Gabriel Arcand) agrees she should travel with him to Okinawa, and the film traces their journey. After some up and downs, Arcand's character loves a quiet traditional weaving shop enough to settle there for the rest of his life, while his lover's (Yûki Kudô) husband moves out, leaving her reunited with her son. This is a lovely film, capturing a rarely seen part of southern Japan, and exploring an interesting relationship between Arcand (a composer in real life) and Yûki Kudô (a singer in real life). Well worth seeing.