brilliant actors, brilliant editing

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

For many people this will be an emotional movie. I was one of them. It is a story of duty taking precedence over family. Unfortunately I know the situation intimately due to conflicts between military service and family. Like the station master I chose duty at the expense of family. The story of what his daughter would have been like is told over several episodes. First as a grade schooler, then a teenager and finally as a young adult. I found myself thinking the same thing - how would my child have developed. It was profoundly moving. You also see the respect that others had for the station master. It came from young railway men and fellow towns people old alike. The concluding scenes were as moving as any of the others in the film.For train buffs, the steam engines are excellent and even the 1 car diesels are good. In my part of Japan the diesels are quite common.Hokkaido is a place where towns are dying and railways are disappearing as the movie alludes to. I am writing this in a hotel lobby in Sapporo, Hokkaido, in weather similar to the movie. It has an added touch of reality.I recommend this film to all who have an interest in Japan and life in the far north.

This film's story is nothing more than social propaganda. It tries to lay blame for Japan's social decline by showing how Japanese should regard their work: Do whatever it is you are assigned to do with all your might and don't look at the larger picture. Sure, there is a positive aspect to this--you got a worker busting his butt to do a good job--but this is a thinking that is no longer applicable in today's world. Ryoko Hirose is an abysmal actress. And what's with that bit of her telling her dad that she's "happy". She's dead! She's a ghost! She's not even real! It's all a delusion on the part of her dad, which should indicate even more that his philosophies toward his job should be regarded with suspicion.I think that non-Japanese who watch this film without knowledge of how things work in Japan will come away with an unrealistic understanding of the Japanese work ethic. It's only this way in the minds of nostalgic old folk who still fail to see that this way of thinking led to destructive involvement with the Nazis. Basically, while totally different in theme, it is as much propaganda as US films about elite solder teams rescuing civilians from the clutches of mad terrorists. And it's not even a well made film.

We made the mistake of not having any tissues next to us while watching this. This movie does a brilliant job of portraying the life of a railroad worker who is so dedicated to his job, that the greatest joys of his life pass him by and he only realizes it when it is too late.It helps if the viewer has an appreciation of Japanese culture and the importance of dedication to one's company (especially among the older generation) to really feel the impact of this movie. If you do not view this film from that perspective, then you will have difficulty empathizing with the main character and therefore miss the beauty contained therein. Brilliant, beautiful, and poignant. 10/10

What more can I say about this movie the other reviewers have already said better. I just watched this movie on TV as a special presentation on one of the local foreign language TV stations here in Los Angeles. If you ever get a chance to see this movie, see it.It has wonderful understated acting, direct but subtle writing, and beautiful cinematography. This is the perfect antidote to the summer blockbuster.