Synopsis
A teenage girl gains supernatural power after an accident and comes to understand her place in the universe.
August in the Water
1995 ‘水の中の八月’ Directed by Gakuryu Ishii
Cast
Director
Producers
Kôji Shiraishi Toshifumi Furusawa Shoetsu Sato Kenichirô Kohi Takashi Sasaki Tetsuji Takazaki Hidekazu Yoshizaki
Writer
Editor
Cinematography
Art Direction
Set Decoration
Composers
Sound
Costumes
Make-Up
Genres
Popular reviews
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I've thought about this film a lot in the past year since I first saw it. Softly steps on very big subjects. Dealing with the universe, aliens, mysterious illnesses and ecological concerns, it could so easily be schlocky and ineffectual. Ishii captured the essence of a Pure Moods tape and transforms it into an engaging tranquil science fiction narrative. It tells a story mostly in the form of sounds, textures and a dream-like atmosphere. Giving details only when completely necessary; truly an immersive film experience. He creates a magical environment using only visuals present in reality. No crazy effects, just the transcendental cosmic beautify of what exists in nature.
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A film in tune with all the elements, and all the greater secrets of the universe that we may never understand.
It's strange how a film can feel so massive, so astronomically dense, yet so elusive and nebulous, like a rain-cloud atop a mountain. It is all-encompassing, completely immersive to the point where it feels like you're floating in it, each moment lingering as you pass through, or as it passes through you.
I have a deep newfound appreciation for stones and mushrooms. Such beautiful things they are.
And the score is something else...like the soft primordial crooning of ancient dolphins and aliens guiding me gently to a peaceful sleep. That's where I'm going right now.
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My soul has been begging for nurturing, and August in the Water helped to satiate its needs. I felt as if a large body of water was enveloping me, soothing and scaring me simultaneously. The water was washing over me, cleansing me of my insecurities and uncertainties, but it was also confronting me with the fact that the world is much larger than myself. I am nothing but a bundle of cells among an infinite amount of other atoms. Despite only occupying a small space of what makes up the world and life, I need to remember that my actions are impactful and how I use my time here on earth matters.
I've been careless and self-absorbed for too long.…
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on cosmic (in)significance and miracles of proximity. flows in reverse from the mundanities of these teenagers’ lives to the loftiest peaks of cinematic abstraction effortlessly. the rediscovery of a boundless soul through bodily harm; not the atoms but the spaces between (the sublimity of negation). the only thing humans can give to the earth is blood (but what wonders it bestows in return). marvelous
”i’m not scared about the boundaries anymore”
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Can you recall the sensation that overtakes you on those special days when you walk outside and the air feels fresh, your feet planted firmly amidst the floral bodies and umber soil patches that comprise the ground you stand upon?
You are attached to everything around you, down to the most minute atomic particles; hearing, seeing, smelling and touching every single ounce of life which surrounds you and feeling as if you yourself are, and always have been, eternally connected to everything on planet Earth and beyond.
A primordial nexus exists between time, body, mind and space; the microcosmic connections that make up the collective unconscious and bind us to the universe we inhabit. Physically, mentally, spiritually, magnetically, telepathically one.…
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Like an everflowing river which perpetually remains new and fresh, August in the Water conquers the mind and flows into it a series of emotions, one after another. As a consequence of its genre hopping and its all-consuming atmosphere, I was left feeling a myriad of sentiments. An ambitious concoction of a love story, a cautionary tale of human greed and its parasitic ways of living in a planet that it continues to destroy, and an introspective piece of science fiction which ruminates over our existence in relation to the cosmos, Gakuryû Ishii's mood piece is outrageously dense and ineffably ethereal.
Youthful, innocuous attraction. Soaring together on a motorcycle, followed by a soft kiss on the cheek; young love in…
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Pre-Y2K anxieties and teen melodrama merge in a sparse, dream-like state; what should be cold and unpleasant is strangely warm and inviting. Pure aesthetic brilliance, hypnotic, nostalgic gold. This is nu-gaze cinema before it even existed. Feels like it just appeared into existence fully formed.
Plus it has dolphins.
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Fire in the sky. Reversed weathering with you, and make it vaporwave. Ethereal music muffled behind a body of water, the night swallowed by moon, pillars of light in a rainforest, image layered on image evoking a form of nostalgia that is so distinct, so oddly personal. Amazing, such a transcendental experience. Very much surprised to see a man that is so dedicated to annihilate our eardrums would craft a masterpiece as soothing as this, Gakuryu Ishii is an artist that is truly capable of doing anything he wishes. Thank you Kudos and Evie for the recommendation.
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How do you go about trying to describe a film as hypnotically lyrical as this? It's like a lucid dream experienced in cinematic form; one where you're gradually floating down a river towards some phenomenon that is too monumental to even comprehend as fragments of teenage melodrama, sci-fi rumination and environmental horror all mysteriously swirl around each other. It touches upon numerous significant topics like ecological anxiety, disease, the impact of technology, eternal love, spiritual transcendence and our place as a species in relation to the cosmos with such evocative elegance that it never comes across as overbearing or sententious. So much presented is elusive and esoteric with the characters struggling to find answers, much in a way that reflects…
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what's scary about this is it is possibly the best film i've ever seen--something echos around my body like a cold wind, like something atavistic stirred from a long rest, and i certainly shouldn't be writing some dumbass words about it. life goes on, which this film seem to say is actually... ok. you can be... and not really be... but still return to the same place, the same home. there is simply not another film out there like this. it makes me feel completely different. like everything that has happened is all part of the same cosmic plan... that has all already happened and is now happening again... that we're all just fragments of the same giant thing, waiting…
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Once upon a time, this is a story that tip-toed down, a graceful playing of a pianist who played on the airways beyond our understanding. In this sapphire-blossomed sky, in the night-beams that turned our gems into light, she came in search of meaning, like a small spaceship crash-landing into earth, the month of August was born, shared with hers in name truly. It seems confusing, but the feelings and photography of this universal sonic-boom had echolocation, a message stylized like a concept album that you can swim with a feeling shared when the dolphins rode at the same time. But how does it become true? Because... "I know" ...what it's like to be true.