Daniel Banks My Review of Japanese Story: After seeing this film, I felt a sense of how powerful a relationship can grow in a matter of days. Mixed in with cultural differences and non-verbal's, this film does an excellent job of showing how two people from two diverse sides of the world can get closer than most couples who live in the same town. The acting is believable and effective with each character showing their thoughts and views through their body language and actions. There is distinct, and precise direction in this film and I applaud Sue Brooks for that. She has made a Romance that truly stands out and surprises most with unexpected events. Some may see it hard to like our two protagonists Hiromitsu and Sandy from the start, but as the film progresses, you do start to care and learn about them. Some of these characters are willing to break oaths in order to achieve those desires, while another may break standard rules. There are character arcs in this story and it really is worth watching. Coming from someone who recently wrote, lit, shot and directed a film with no dialog this film does non-verbal communication right. I'd recommend it to anyone who is a fan of the romance/drama genre.

jacobd77 The movie was slow paced with very little action. At times it was even confusing at to what was going on between Sandy and Hiromitsu Tachibana because of the lack of dialogue. The accents of both characters also make the movie hard to follow because you have to decipher a Japanese and Australian accent often during a single conversation. In between the slow dialogue (SPOILER!!!!!!!), there is a sudden awkward sex scene (Sandy put pants on) between the two after only knowing each other for a few days and then Hiro abruptly and dramatically dying after diving into the shallow end of a small body of water like a child into a pool for the first time. This movie is a great example of nonverbal communication and great for a class to watch and analyze, but not so much for entertainment purposes. If you are a nonverbal communications teacher at any level of education, you need to have you students watch this movie regardless of an awkward sex scene. And yes that means high school students as well. It's the human body so we need to get past censoring the human bodies in schools.

llawson-e I was not sure if I could get into the story line of the movie at first. I didn't want to keep watching it until halfway through. At that point I became emotionally attached to the characters. I ended up loving the movie! It's a beautiful and surprising film that makes you feel the emotions the characters are going through. There were several times I was shocked as to what turns the movie makes. If you want to enjoy the movie have an open mind. It's a little confusing at times but keep watching!I enjoyed watching the cultural differences and how the interactions between the characters unfolded. More than anything the movie captures emotions and feelings between two people that unexpectedly found love.

brimon28 Having seen this film at first release in a cinema, and enjoyed it, I was somewhat disturbed by some negative posts on this page. When the opportunity arose to see it on TV, then, I viewed it again. It's a bit more mysterious than I was aware of at first viewing. This could be because the two versions are different cuts. Perhaps the sound was better on my home cinema than I recall from the hardtop. Certainly, the story was well set in the opening scenes, when it is obvious that Sandy, the female IT specialist, is coming off an unsatisfactory relationship. As one of her colleagues remarks: "I don't know how anybody could do it with him". We then are aware that Sandy is "on the rebound" from that relationship. The unpleasantness of that experience is not helped by her being told to escort a visitor, Hiro, on a sightseeing trip for which neither is well prepared. This is where things get complicated. Sandy is a female in the blokey environment of outback mining, where the usual job for a woman is driving a large earthmover. Hiro treats her, not as a professional, but as his driver. On the phone he describes her to his wife as "She has a big bum and she talks loudly". When it becomes obvious that Hiro is clueless about outback motoring in his demand to be taken to inaccessible places, he secretively peruses Sandy's guidebook. At the same time, Sandy hides her Japanese phrase book inside a magazine. Their communication level in zilch. Sandy does most of the right things when they get into trouble, not knowing that Hiro has read at least one trick to get them going. Or does she deliberately leave that trick out of her lexicon? In any event, the episode does improve their communication level. To some, that is a mystery. In the finale, we see one of the basic rules of drama. Conflict is followed by changes in the characters. Sandy is less uptight, and we become aware that Hiro was in love with his wife all along. That is the mystery in "the letter". Why did Hiro's wife give Sandy the letter? We don't know, but remember that we have here a woman director and a woman writer. In any case, the wife and Sandy reconcile, as I suppose, two intelligent women would do in the circumstances. Viewers might care to check the lengths of the original film and the video version. This is a very watchable movie.