Watch The Castle of Sand For Free

As Good As It Gets

A Major Disappointment

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

The Castle of Sand / Container of Sand (Lit.) (Suna No Utsuwa). Viewed on Streaming. Music = ten (10) stars; cinematography/lighting = eight (8) stars; subtitles/translations = six (6) stars. Director Yoshitarô Nomura again displays his fascination with crime mysteries, trains, and rural Japan (in a way, this film looks like a mini Honshu travelogue of many places tourists may never see). The Director's tale primarily comprises a mash up of: unrelenting, investigative work by homicide police detectives; the creation and performance (by a 60-member symphony orchestra) of a piano concerto; and the lingering prejudice against noninfectious leprosy suffers. Nomura uses a common plot device where seeming remote and unrelated events turn out to be tightly coupled. The film is too long. It loses it's dynamic punch when 20-30 minutes of symphonic music is inserted at the end of the film (it's just too much of a good thing and plot-point overkill). This brings a suspenseful final police evidence review meeting (prior to an arrest warrant being authorized and issued for the concerto's creator/ conductor) often to a stand still (there is much cross-cutting between the concert and the stalled review meeting). A poorly executed contrivance that almost sinks a heretofore well crafted suspense movie! (And far removed from, say, Hitchcock's symphonic suspense scenes in THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (1934, 1956).) Acting is fine except for the histrionics of the fake conductor. Distinguished character actor Chishû Ryû makes a welcomed cameo (albeit crucial) appearance. Narrative in the form of on-screen text is surprisingly effective: it adds value as opposed to being a "quick and dirty" way to link disparate scenes during the editing process. Cinematography/lighting (wide screen, color) are excellent and include striking forward/reverse zoom shots. Original/adapted music is outstanding. Subtitles are occasionally a bit too long given their screen duration. Writings (of which many are shown on screen) are usually not translated. Same for many newspaper article subheadings. A cinematic treat. Highly recommended. WILLIAM FLANIGAN, PhD.

CASTLE OF SAND is an engrossing, laid-back police procedural that captures your attention even when the plot seems fairly ordinary. A Tokyo cop (Tetsuro Tamba) is troubled when a retired cop is found brutally murdered, with no evidence save the vague recollections of a few townsfolk. At times, the story is reminiscent of a regional travelogue, but in learning more about Japan, Tamba hones in on a small set of likely suspects, but everyone is so agreeable that uncovering the truth becomes like rooting out the one hidden evidence of violence in a sea of potential data. Regrettably, the film unravels in the final forty or so minutes, when the remainder of the story is told with musical accompaniment of a famous pianist. The plot becomes frankly loses credibility and even becomes rather nonsensical. The movie changes mood and style, and dripping with melodrama.

I saw "The Castle of Sand" at a Japanese Film Festival this year in Sydney, and I must say that I'm surprised that this movie isn't better known as it's so beautifully made and incredibly moving...It's one of those near-perfect gems that are few and far between. It's a fairly long movie at nearly 2.5 hours, but the movie is one that draws you in very quickly and keeps you wondering up until the very end.The plot centres around the mysterious murder of Miki, a retired policeman in his 60's who was well-liked by pretty much everyone who knew him for his kindness and integrity. Two detectives, one a rookie and one fairly older, are assigned to the case and what at first seems like three unrelated stories slowly weave together to reveal the reasons and the person behind Miki's death. Even if you're not a fan of foreign movies, "The Castle of Sand" is still definitely worth a watch.

I just saw this movie for the first time last night at the Japanese Film Festival held in Melbourne. It was a re-mastered print and on the huge screen it was magnificent. The flashback scenes with the father and son set to the stunning musical score seemed like a completely different movie to what had preceded. But to me, final scenes are important - a skillful movie ending turns a good film into a great film. A bad ending turns an average to good film into a piece of rubbish. As far as Castle of Sand is concerned, what started out as an interesting detective story ended as a sweeping piece which left me walking out of the cinema thinking "That was incredible!!".Japanese cinema rarely fails to impress me. I keep discovering more and more gems, usually from years gone by when I was too young to experience them at the time.