Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman

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1:39

Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman

2023

1h 50m

Fantasy

Animation

Drama

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

77%

Tomatometer

30 Reviews

77%

Popcornmeter

Fewer than 50 Ratings

A lost cat, a voluble giant toad and a tsunami help an unambitious salesman, his frustrated wife and a schizophrenic accountant save Tokyo from an earthquake and find meaning in their lives.

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Richard Whittaker

Austin Chronicle

06/01/2023

3.5/5

Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman is no less insightful into the mercurial vicissitudes of the human condition, but it still finds space for Murakami the fabulist.

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Pat Padua

Washington Post

05/31/2023

2/4

There are sequences of efficient dialogue that — if you close your eyes — unspool the kind of low-key, elliptical tension that Murakami seems to be able to pull off in his sleep. But ... the aggressively odd visuals ruin the illusion.

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Tim Cogshell

FilmWeek (LAist)

04/24/2023

A very odd story, but the conversations... are absolutely fascinating.

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André Didyme-Dôme

Rolling Stone en Español

1d

More than a canonical literary adaptation, Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman captures something far more elusive: Murakami's emotional atmosphere. [Full review in Spanish]

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Anna Hoang

Boston Hassle

07/17/2025

2.5/5

It also doesn’t mean that the film is pointless. For people who have a curiosity about human behavior or has wandered deeply in the crevices of our id, it should be an automatic win.

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Roland Kelts

Japan Times

08/07/2024

It wryly refuses to take itself or its world too seriously, which, like Murakami’s best fiction, makes its openly emotional scenes heartbreaking.

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Logan D

@Greynomad38 Mar 4

Based upon the short stories of Japanese author Haruki Murakami, this soft, restrained 2D animated film is a playfully surreal work. Softly-spoken engaging dialogue decorates the reflective dream logic narrative. I particularly enjoyed the frog's literary references. Recommended

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Ro I

@RT87768273 12/05/2023

I loved the calm pace, the raw human experiences and the vastness of murakami's imagination.

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bryce y

@RT02723547 08/03/2023

They don't really think the characters look particularly Japanese. They looked a bit odd but the film was beautiful and strange. It's one of the best cinematic adaptations of Murakami's writing that I've seen.

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Pierre Földes

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Katherine King

Shimao

Shoshana Wilder

Kyoko

Jesse Noah Gruman

Junpei

John Vamvas

Manager

Amaury de Crayencour

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Synopsis

A lost cat, a voluble giant toad and a tsunami help an unambitious salesman, his frustrated wife and a schizophrenic accountant save Tokyo from an earthquake and find meaning in their lives.

Director: Pierre Földes
Producer: Pierre Baussaron, Tom Dercourt, David Mouraire, Olivier Père, Emmanuel-Alain Raynal, Pierre Urbain
Screenwriter: Pierre Földes
Distributor: Zeitgeist Films
Production Co: La Procirep-Angoa, Région Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Ciné+, The Harold Greenberg Fund, Doghouse Films, Téléfilm Canada, Cinémage 14, Eurimages, Productions l'Unite Centrale, Gestion SODEC, La Région Île-de-France, Miyu Productions, Centre National du Cinéma et de L'image Animée, Crédit d'Impôt Cinéma et Télévision, Cinéventure 5, Cinéaxe, arte France Cinéma, micro_scope, Luxembourg Film Fund, Studio Mad, An Original Picture, Creative Europe Media, Auvergne Rhône-Alpes Cinéma, Cinémadefacto, Région Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, Fondation GAN pour le Cinéma, Région Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Nederlands Filmfonds, Société de Développement des Entreprises Culturelles (SODEC), Crédit d'Impôt pour la Production Cinématographique ou Magnétoscopique Canadienne, Arte France
Genre: Fantasy, Animation, Drama
Original Language: French
Release Date (Theaters): Apr 14, 2023, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Jun 13, 2023
Box Office (Gross USA): $47.5K
Runtime: 1h 50m
Aspect Ratio: Flat (1.85:1)

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