Masterful Movie

An Exercise In Nonsense

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

This movie ought to make you sit back in your chair and imagine living in such a place.For me, I would sail my boat on that beautiful lake on summer afternoons and then go to Cafe Mani for Mizushima's breads and Rie-san's meals-then sail home to bed,with the sunset, smiling all the way. Basically,we follow 3 stories,the big city girl, a little girl and her divorced father,and a aged married couple-all who come under the almost zen-like spell cast by the two young owners of this café/B&B. Visually this film is astounding,everything seems so organic-there is one car,one motorcycle,one scooter and a bus-you never see anything plastic. Hats and scarves are hand-knitted,not bought. One thing left to your imagination is how hard Rie and Nao must work to run Cafe Mani,but we see more the rewards of their labor-especially through the friends and regular customers there and the amazing respect and honor people can show each other,if taught to do so... Make of this review what you will.