To the Ends of the Earth

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Conrad S 10/10/2023 This film is despicable propaganda and a gift basket to one of the dirtiest regimes on Earth. Uzbekistan is a nightmare police state. Violence against women is savage and pervasive. The police routinely torture people. But in this offensively blinkered story, a solitary women can get lost in a major city at night, wander past groups of men in dark alleys and underground spaces, and absolutely nothing happens. This woman, a reporter with a small crew doing a film for Japanese television, is treated more rudely by her producer than by the locals. She guilelessly films a Muslim mosque, which is prohibited by law, and runs away in fear when the police approach her. They eventually find her and take to her to a police station. Is she beaten and brutalized? Of course not. They are very sweet and kind and tell her she is not in any trouble at all. The soundtrack gives us no hint that people are being tortured mercilessly throughout the building. You see, her fear was entirely in her own imagination, a product of bad misinformation! This film was made with the full cooperation of the Uzbekistan Tourism Bureau, nothing but shabby propaganda that papers over the ugly truth. "Look, folks, our country is beautiful and nice! It's not the dangerous hell hole you think it it! Bring your family, and your money, to lovely Uzbekistan!" Kiyoshi Kurosawa should be ashamed of himself. See more 02/11/2021 wonderful movie ... a must see ! See more 01/15/2021 (Español / English) Hasta los confines de la Tierra es una película que acompaña a Yoko, una joven reportera japonesa y su equipo durante la filmación de un documental de viajes para al TV japonesa en Uzbekistán, en el corazón de Asia Central. La película sorprende a cada rato con las inesperadas peripecias de la protagonista y con sus cambios de registro, sin perder nunca su coherencia. ---------------------- Abstract English To the Ends of the Earth is a film that accompanies Yoko, a young Japanese reporter and her team during the filming of a travel documentary for Japanese TV in Uzbekistan, in the heart of Central Asia. The film surprises at all times with the unexpected adventures of the protagonist and with the changes of her register, without ever losing her coherence. ------------------------ Reseña Español Yoko, una joven reportera japonesa (Atsuko Maeda, actriz y cantante pop) y su equipo recorren Uzbekistán para un programa de viajes de la TV japonesa. La película de Kishoyi Kurosawa tiene bastante de inclasificable. Es un drama, pero con momentos de comedia, algunos de ellos perturbadores, con Yoko pasando por varias situaciones incómodas y a veces insólitas. Hasta los confines… es una película impredecible que sorprende a cada rato con los avatares de su protagonista, con sus consiguientes y necesarios cambios de registro. A pesar de ello, la película conserva su coherencia de principio a fin, en parte por la figura de su protagonista, frágil pero curiosa y resuelta. Ciertos choques culturales, las diferencias de criterio con su equipo, su férreo y tenaz profesionalismo, las vocaciones postergadas y los sueños de Yoko se suman a un registro casi documental de las exóticas locaciones por las que transitan que nunca cae en el pintoresquismo. --------------------------- English Review Yoko, a young Japanese reporter (Atsuko Maeda, actress and pop singer) and her team travel to Uzbekistan for a Japanese TV travel program. Kishoyi Kurosawa's film is quite unclassifiable. It's a drama, but with moments of comedy, some of them disturbing, with Yoko going through various awkward and sometimes unusual situations. Up to the End ... is an unpredictable film that surprises at all times with the vicissitudes of the protagonist of it, with the consequent and necessary changes of registry of her. Despite this, the film retains its coherence from beginning to end, in part because of the figure of her protagonist, fragile but curious and determined. Certain cultural clashes, the differences of opinion with her team, her iron and tenacious professionalism, the postponed vocations and Yoko's dreams add to an almost documentary record of the exotic locations through which they pass that never falls into the picturesqueness. See more 11/26/2020 Sometimes you just have to chalk it down to: I just don't get it and move on. Kiyoshi Kurosawa's 2019 film, now streaming on MUBI, would have passed me by if not for the favourable reviews it has received; and even though I don't consider it a bad film or a badly made one, I did find it oddly composed, truncated and a tad pretentious. Atsudo Maeda, a member of a highly successful J-pop girl-band in real life, plays a timid, fish-out-of-water reporter, who dreams of being a singer, but instead finds herself many miles away from home in Uzbekistan filming a travel program. Confronted and challenged by culture shock and language barriers, she is further humiliated and exploited by her production team led by an indifferent director. Made to commemorate the 25th anniversary of diplomatic relationship between Uzbekistan and Japan, the locals are decently depicted, as expected, and it might be of some interest as a travelogue film. Otherwise, the mix of mild comedy and twee drama (involving her getting lost, twice! and getting into trouble with the police while chasing a cat!), and her Japanese cover of Edith Piaf's Hymne a l'Amour, is simply baffling and lost on me. So instead, I'll return to two of those reviews that got me here: Mark Schilling of The Japan Times called Madea a "lonely-but-intrepid heroine" – but I think she's more insipid than intrepid; while Hollywood Reporter's Neil Young wrote, "Officially endorsed international co-productions are usually stilted, self-consciously didactic affairs; the seasoned but adventurous hands of Kurosawa, however, here yield quietly immersive and spellbinding results." – of which I can wholeheartedly endorse the first half, but I've detected no evidence of the second. See more Read all reviews

To the Ends of the Earth

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