After watching this masterpiece, I'm ashamed and angered that I live in a culture which made me discover this film via its entertaining, but shalow, reductionist, emotionless, individualist and ultimately unworthy American bastardisation.


The storytelling is of top quality, film's grounding in historical period and its social conditions is so important, characters may seem one-dimensional in their drivenness on the surface, but are complex, torn between widely accepted morality and personal/family principles and devotions.
I'm not too familiar with Japanese cinematography so I cannot place my observations into context, but I liked the tempo/pacing, camera-work (usage of fast zooms, bird's perspective shots, skewed angled shots) adds to an original feel, scenery is fantastic and even more impressive knowing it's a low-budget film, music is full of emotion and it guides the viewer.
I will definitely watch it again