No, the last film of Naomi Kawase, internationally known as "Still the water", is not a film reserved to "intellectual people", as I heard recently. If we refer to "Last year at Marienbad" (Resnais-1961) as a film for"intellectual people", we find no common point, except slowness of the rhythm.
The spectator should only follow the example of the female heroin, Kyoko, who, in one scene at the beginning, dives into the sea with all her clothes (except her shoes), and enjoy this bath, meeting joyfully with the old-fellow fisherman, "PapyTortoise".
Following her example, we, spectators, should dive into the film, and enjoy the play of sunlight across the branches of the old banyan, just in front of the terrace of Kyoko's house; enjoy the meals lovely prepared by Kyoko's father (so much different from the meals eaten in a restaurant at Tokyo by Kaito, Kyoko's lover, and his father; and completely opposed to the food left by Kaito's mother in the refrigerator); enjoy even the soft departure of Isa, Kyoko's mother, after a long illness, among songs and dances.
I love so much this warm celebration of la joie de vivre, typically a Japanese one, as, after each disaster, typhoon, earthquake or tsunami, we see Japanese people build again, with a strong faith in life, all that has been destroyed.
