oOgiandujaOo_and_Eddy_Merckx I am making a habit of liking films like this. I fondly recall ignoring the pitiful attempts at action in Jean Delannoy's Macao, l'enfer du jeu (1942) and revelling in the unusual intergenerational love scenes between Mireille Balin and Erich von Stroheim. 2009 saw other unloved unfocused occidental-oriental concoctions, such as Ming-liang's Visage (also at Cannes with this movie), and Tran Anh Hung's I Come With The Rain, both of which I adore. Whilst many look for perfection in films I am looking to fall in love with a movie. In real life when you fall in love with someone you surrender to their flaws because you see something sympathetic about them, you admire their courage in making themselves vulnerable to you. This movie makes no pretence of perfect love, Ryu and David are like the frequently pictured learner drivers at the test centre, stuttering along hesitantly. Love is very difficult, men and women are so different, so painfully ignorant of each others' ways, show me perfect lovers, I'll show you folie à deux.Yes, as with Delannoy, the action here, or attempts at it, are fairly risible, but they are also besides the point, Map Of The Sounds of Tokyo is about two unhappy people finding oblivion in a sexy hotel room modelled on a metro carriage. In my opinion it is a story worth knowing. My final comment is that there has been talk here that Sergi López was not up to a romantic lead in this movie, also that the film is not realistic as regards Tokyo. One point of contemporary earthy realism that those commentators miss is that Western men punch above their weight in Tokyo due to their relative lack of timidity.Do not punish this movie for failing to keep up the pretence of genre, embrace it.

ron-bowren Looking for a list of the soundtrack music played in this film. Can't seem to find much, except that many viewers enjoyed the music as much as I did.Hope someone is able to post a list of the music, and maybe even where a soundtrack might be purchased. Have seen this film more than once, and still continue to enjoy it!Watching it each time brings back a lot of good memories of the sights, sounds, and smells of Japan, and the many good friends I came to know. My life continues to be influenced by the impressions the Japanese culture had on me. I also enjoyed the film "Norwegian Wood"!

russian29 What can I say? The movie did not live up to the promise of its opening scene. It's well-shot and nicely lit, with a few postcard-perfect views of Tokyo, but the story makes no sense, the characters are poorly written, and Sergi Lopez is horribly miscast as the male lead. The ending is a formulaic cop-out.The trailer tries to sell the movie as a sex thriller, which it's most decidedly not. It's a tale of two lost souls in a big city who try to find solace in each other, but fail, for various reasons.Rinko Kikuchi performs well as a quiet fish market worker who moonlights as a paid assassin, but her character remains an enigma throughout the movie, which makes it difficult for the audience to connect or empathize with her. She bares her body more than once in fairly explicit sex scenes - and what a nice body it is - one only wishes the director could give us similar insight into her soul.Sergi Lopez does his usual macho strut with a hint of menace which might have worked in a different movie, but feels utterly out of place in an upscale wine merchant from modern-day Tokyo. He is very unconvincing as Rinko's love interest, and is further hindered by his corpulent, scary hairy physique and significant age difference with his co-star. I could not for the life of me believe in chemistry between the two of them.The omnipresent narrator, an older sound engineer who maintains chaste friendship with Rinko's character and gives the movie its title, is the most sympathetic of all, but he is more of a convenient voice-over device than a fully-fleshed character. Other parts are one-dimensional at best.Recommended only for indiscriminate art-house fans, Japan fetishists, and furries.

Q In general the movie sucks. The plot of the movie is very disappointing, even a 10 years old boy can write this kind of story. The killer fell in love with her target and finally died for the target. Everyone in the theater can guess this story after the first 20 mins, and we all hope the writer can bring something more dramatic and surprise us, but it seems too much for us to expect that to come. The picture is the only good thing in the movie, with the color and landscape of Tokyo, it creates an oriental feeling for the west viewers. I am surprised that they even dare to bring this movie to Cannes Film Festival. I am sorry if my words hurt anybody's feeling.