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      The Japanese Wife

      2010 1h 41m Drama List
      Reviews 71% Audience Score 100+ Ratings Snehamoy (Rahul Bose) leads a lonely life in rural India with his aunt, Mashi (Moushumi Chatterjee). Miyage (Chigusa Takaku) also is basically alone, stuck with an ill mother in Japan. When the pair start a pen pal relationship, they instantly become close friends, despite the distance. Snehamoy has a chance to marry local girl Sandhya (Raima Sen), but refuses, instead wishing to wed Miyage. But money problems and the space separating the would-be lovers could make romance an impossibility. Read More Read Less

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      Critics Reviews

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      Shubhra Gupta The Indian Express 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. Rated: 3/10 Apr 16, 2019 Full Review Read all reviews

      Audience Reviews

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      Audience Member This is a very endearing movie, it made me really happy from the inside, it tugs at your heart strings, in a way that is not explananble. The actors, the story line, the simplicity--it deserves 10 stars if i can give it. Truly a great watch---Wish we had more such movies. It summarizes one thing for sure--LOVE is a universal language. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/25/23 Full Review Audience Member Story of a 17-year long platonic relationship! Beautifully portrayed... Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/20/23 Full Review Audience Member It's my fav. romantic genre movie of all time Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/16/23 Full Review Audience Member Emotionally touching. Kinda romantic movie I love. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/14/23 Full Review Audience Member A Beautiful love story between an Indian teacher living on Bali Island in the West Bengal Sunderbans and a young Japanese woman. It is a love story between two shy people who never even met, but created a strong bond, of love and friendship through correspondence. This is an artful quiet movie, with so much beauty; One of it's strengths come from the restraint in the way the story is being told. The care they have for each other, not through big declarations of love, but through every-day actions and consideration. She sends him Japanese kites that enchant his whole village during kite flying competition. He consults the ayurvedic doctor when she gets sick. This movie is not everyone. It is a very slow moving, (which I liked), where attention is given to little details and nuances, through some 17 years of marriage. The cinematography of the island is gorgeous.. and this beautifully crafted film by director Aparna Sen, is held together by strong performances by the lead actors. The movie poster refers to it as a "love poem..." - good description.. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/09/23 Full Review Audience Member Watching the Japanese wife brings to mind a quote that I stumbled upon long time back -" A bird may love a fish, but where will they build a home together? " Countless movies made on the same theme have bored me endlessly but The Japanese wife stands out amongst them. Most of these movies depend on the conflict of two individuals living a world apart, trying to fit in. But the Japanese wife interestingly does not try to use the conflict for drama but instead accepts the obvious and is comfortable with the separation of characters. Its almost like an innocent children's movie- no evil characters, no twists in fate, excessive dependence on melodrama and it still charms the viewer for most part of the movie until the inevitably frustrating ending. We follow the life of a timid, middle class school teacher from Bengal who befriends a Japanese girl by the long forgotten art of correspondence. The first half of the movie shows the growth of their relationship by words, drawn out by impressionistic Imagery. The movie looks almost like a dream in this opening sequence, switching effortleslessly through memories with images of bengal and japan which one might conjure up just from postcards and photographs. This is actually one of the rare occasions in indian cinema where seasons are used so effectively to draw out the emotions of the protagonist through out the narrative . A slow, melancholic japanese score is used throughout this sequence underlining snehamoy's facination with the japanese girl. At some stage the lovers decides to get married, they understand each other(or they think they do) and love each other, everything looks perfect; except for the fact that neither of them can cross their countries to live with the other. And despite the odds they get married, foolishly staying a world apart in hopes of meeting in future and slowly the movie starts changing its tone subtly from impressionism, giving more of a sense of realism , trading the bright, vibrant colours of spring to the umbers and greys of the autumn, filling in the anxieties of the protagonists. Snehamoys finds it difficult to share a complete connection with his wife as his life progresses. And along with it he develops a certain affection to a widow which is very subtly hinted in the movie. It is said that music is used in movies to tell things that is not spoken in it. Aparna sense had the right idea in it even though the movie is not extensively scored . The music whenever it commences is almost like half of the of visuals and the subtle change in the score from japanese to bengali melody is used to show snehamoy's relationship with the bengali wife even when he is obsessed trying to help his japanese wife. The movie raises many important questions concerning relationships. How could a relationship work even if the two individuals involved share a deep connection , if they can never be together physically? Could a person love two persons at a time and still be true to both? The answers are obvious often prejudiced and pessimistic but the movie manages to reinforce a certain faith in its characters' ideals even with the very obvious frustrating climax. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/10/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      The Japanese Wife

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      Movie Info

      Synopsis Snehamoy (Rahul Bose) leads a lonely life in rural India with his aunt, Mashi (Moushumi Chatterjee). Miyage (Chigusa Takaku) also is basically alone, stuck with an ill mother in Japan. When the pair start a pen pal relationship, they instantly become close friends, despite the distance. Snehamoy has a chance to marry local girl Sandhya (Raima Sen), but refuses, instead wishing to wed Miyage. But money problems and the space separating the would-be lovers could make romance an impossibility.
      Director
      Aparna Sen
      Screenwriter
      Kunal Basu, Aparna Sen
      Genre
      Drama
      Original Language
      English
      Release Date (Streaming)
      Jul 2, 2016
      Runtime
      1h 41m
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