Watch I Have To Buy New Shoes For Free

Fresh and Exciting

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

A brother and sister travel to Paris, but the sister has a hidden agenda. When the brother is left stranded, he bumps into a fellow Japanese and an unlikely holiday romance blossoms.At the 75-minute mark, this film takes a new, interesting direction. Miho Nakayama at that point reminds us that she is a formidable actress, and Osamu Mukai as the stranded Sen gives subtle, nuanced reactions to the new developments. Very few viewers are likely to get to this point though. The first five minutes are tough to get through - a ridiculously clunky set up sees Sen abandoned by his sister at the banks of the River Seine, followed by an equally incredulous, almost slapstick sequence where Nakayama slips on Sen's passport and pantomime falls to the ground. From then on we have basically a Paris travelogue with two highly implausible characters. There is no shading, sub-text, or sense of lives lived off-screen with these characters. There is no need to wonder what they are thinking - they tell us, talking to themselves in empty rooms and on the streets, in brazen spouts of exposition. There is no need to wonder what they are feeling: Sakamoto's plinky-plonky score is layered on wall-to-wall throughout, even over dialogue, of which there is lots. There is no will-they-won't-they suspense built up between the potential lovers, more a resigned sense of "Jeez, get on with it!" Paris is photographed home video style, no use of light or shadow. There is no discernible colour palette. The director favours hand-held shots and for the most part framing and composition are shoddy and sub-par. Technically, it looks like beginning student filmmakers got to shoot with an A-list cast.Shunji Iwai's name is connected to this, but it is an Iwai plot with no Iwai poetry, or Iwai visual flair. Sen's infantile younger sister has her own playpen drama with her boyfriend in a slightly annoying sub-plot. The whole thing remains frustratingly unresolved.The introduction of Aoi's backstory in the final third hints that there was an engaging story to be told with these characters, but the filmmakers missed the chance. In sum, a mishmash of ordinary made-for-TV aesthetics and amateurish screen writing make this instantly forgettable.

This is a typical stylish Japanese romance targeted at the general market, clearly above average but not quite reaching top-notch. The plot is a tad melodramatic but quite acceptable, starting with young brother and sister, Sen and Suzume, in a cab en route to their hotel in Paris. On an impulse, Sen, a professional photographer, asks the driver to stop by a scenic spot for them to take some photos. A somewhat puzzling development ensues: Suzume tricks Sen into focusing on some photography objects, quickly unloads his baggage from the trunk, tells the driver to take off with her and yells to his brother thanking him for keeping her company to this point and telling hi she's going to seek her own adventure. The reason, we find out little bit later, is that she is coming to look up her boyfriend Kango hoping either persuade him to come home with her to Japan or to let her stay with him in Paris. The reason she wants Sen to come with her is that her brother has always been her "lucky charm" in that everything in her life seems to have gone well with him by her side. A little contrived, but necessary to bring the protagonist to Paris.The main story is about a chance encounter Sen has with Aoi, a lovely woman who is maybe ten years older who has been living in Paris for a while. The plot here is also a tad contrived but will do. Passing by the stranded Sen by sheer chance, Aoi accidentally steps on his passport which happens to be lying on the ground, resulting in a sort of mutual destruction: the passport mutilated and the heel of her elegant shoe broken. With crazy glue which materializes from his baggage, he fixes her shoe while she gives him direction to the Japanese embassy, as well as her phone number. Later, when he finds that Suzume has got details about the hotel but can't be reached, with her phone switched off, Sen calls Aoi for help. Further developments hinges on having a drink too many culminated in the two finding a soul mate and listener in each other, to whom they can pour out their life's woes.While comparison has been made by some to "Before sunrise/sunset", "Shoes" is not quite up there in that calibre. Still, it is a nice, light, bitter-sweet romance, quite enjoyable in its own right. Shunji Iwai fan will note that while he is the producer and not the director, this movie does clearly have his poetic style. Miho Nakayama, just past 40, is lovely and captivating as ever but in terms of artistic achievement, "Shoe" has a long way to go compared with "Toyko biyori" (1997) which is arguably her best work to-date.Ryuichi Sakamoto's scores and Chigi Kanbe's photography are two other attractions of this movie. The most memorable scene in the movie occurs quite early, in a long cell phone conversation between the protagonists when she is giving him directions to get to his hotel. Quite cleverly, while not face-to-face, this is the most important scene that delivers the initial bonding between the protagonist, sustaining the rest of the movie.