Ame agaru (1999)

Director:

Takashi Koizumi

Writers:

Akira Kurosawa (screenplay)
Shûgorô Yamamoto (short story)

Release Date:

22 January 2000 (Japan)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Ihei Misawa and his wife Tayo, stranded by rains at a country inn, bring a great deal of happiness to...

Plot Keywords:

Rain | Samurai | River | Ronin | Jidai Geki

Awards:

14 wins & 6 nominations

Cast

Akira Terao	...	Ihei Misawa
Yoshiko Miyazaki	...	Tayo Misawa
Shirô Mifune	...	Lord Nagai Izuminokami Shigeaki
Fumi Dan	...	Okugata
Hisashi Igawa	...	Kihei Ishiyama
Hidetaka Yoshioka	...	Chamberlain Gonnojo Sakakibara
Mieko Harada	...	Okin
Tatsuo Matsumura	...	Sekkyo-Bushi Jii, the Old Preacher
Takayuki Katô	...	Hayato Naitô
Tatsuya Nakadai	...	Tsuji Gettan
Makiya Yamaguchi
Toshihide Wakamatsu
Daisuke Ryû
Bin Moritsuka
Masayoshi Nagasawa

Also Known As:

After the Rain (International: English title)
Après la pluie (France)
When the Rain Lifts (USA) (festival title)
Aharai Ha-Geshem (Israel: Hebrew title) [iw]
Ame agaru (Poland) [pl]
Après la pluie (Canada: French title) [fr]
Depois da Chuva (Brazil) [pt]
Nach dem Regen (Germany) [de]
Sateen jälkeen (Finland) [fi]

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

Japan | France

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

France:U

Company:

7 Films Cinéma

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Kurosawa: The Last Emperor (1999) (TV)

Incredible and powerful film - but not necessarily a samurai film

A samurai and his wife search to find happiness with themselves, their relationship, and their station as they weather the disillusion of their past and current circumstances.

Written by Akira Kurosawa and directed by Takashi Koizumi after Kurosawa's death. This is a breathtaking reflection of Kurosawa's early and later storytelling sensabilities. But it is a very complex film, one that upon initial viewing may defy the viewers expectations of the samurai genre and seem simplistic, overly long, or as one reviewer described: unexciting.

This film reminds me very much of Red Beard, another Kurosawa story that while set in feudal Japan is not necessarily a samurai film.

Rating 9/10