Popular reviews

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  Review by Hibiscus ★★★★★ 4

  I watched this film yesterday, but felt like I needed some time to reflect on what I'd just experienced.

  I still have no idea what this film is about.

  What I do know, however, is that it's one of the most poetically perfect, creative and beautiful films that I've ever witnessed.

  The story is based on a poem, but translates so incredibly well to the cinematic medium. Films that truly utilize the filmic attributes, that are exclusive to cinema alone, are extremely rare. This films gave me countless cinematic orgasms, I literally had to pause it and catch my breath.

  Okay, in all seriousness, this film features some of the best cinematography I've ever seen. The style is sometimes reminiscent…

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  Review by Jerry McGlothlin ★★★★

  Convalescence through metamorphosis. Only if peace is permitted and healing enabled can the chrysalis take shape and a new form transmute. Transcending the pain of praeteritum tempus in the sky; soaring above the spirit’s bygone ruins.

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  Review by Ben ★★★★½ 2

  It is shocking that Silence Has No Wings has so few views. As with most Japanese New Wave films, it tackles many social and political issues specific to Japan. There is no shortage of visually engaging and thematically dense films from the Japanese New Wave era, but what makes this one stick out from an impressive collection of films is its form and structure. Kazuo Kuroki opted to go without traditional narrative techniques; instead, he presents the viewer with a series of largely symbolic vignettes that differ in genre and are all loosely connected. This approach allows for many challenging topics to be touched upon fascinatingly.

  The caterpillar, symbolized by the always beautiful Mariko Kaga, is making an unendurable journey…

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  Review by Vladimir ★★★★★ 2

  A dream-like journey through post-war Japan, the journey starts at the North of Japan with a boy catching a butterfly, it seems like this butterfly is representing the dreams of the Japanese people and what happened to those dreams. The struggling to believe what happened and the questioning whether those dreams are fake or not. Nagasaki, the South of Japan, the beginning of a trip through everybody's life and the post-war society.
  An absolute masterpiece! I dare to call it the Japanese-Japanese version of Hiroshima Mon Amour.

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  Review by Jack Kecskes ★★★★★ 4

  Come to think of it, life with no turning points is a bore

  An episodic meditation on post war Japan, specifically interested in the physical and psychological impact of the atomic bomb. This allegorical journey stretching from one end of the country to another is told through the displacement of a butterfly larva. A wistful Mariko Kaga (representing the insect) traverses Japan's major hubs, observing the uncertainty of the times and the dismay of its inhabitants.

  Being an adaptation of a poem, the film’s appeal lies mainly in its lyrical expression of themes rather than narrative. That being said, there are a variety of interpretations that can be drawn from this cryptic experiment in structure. I saw the film as…

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  Review by s.

  i've never forgot you, even for a day.

  stunning poetic imagery, exquisite, and overly enigmatic.
  this film had a lot of visually impressive shots that follow
  the associative logic of poetry and dreams. it also shows
  the journey into the traumatized psyche of post-war japan,
  appearing to show how effective and coherent an episodic
  a film can be.

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  Review by lisa ★★★★

  "a lonely butterfly sings a song of green. sings a song of runaway love."

  so beautiful and poetic, the b&w cinematography is stunning.

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  Review by Avirup ★★★★ 6

  81/100
  
  Entrancing, haunting and astonishingly beautiful. A visual poetry. It's hard to say what this is really about but it's absolutely incredible in parts like that stunning ending. Truly some experience.

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  Review by Ishan ★★★★ 4

  If Throw Away Your Books, Rally in the Streets is the relentlessly chaotic depiction of post-war Japan's anxieties, then Silence Has No Wings is the dissonantly subdued one. A stream of disconnection grasped by the melancholic motif of a humble caterpillar - one that acts as a reflection of lost potential through all walks of life. Easily one of the most urgent films of its time.

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  Review by Abhishek ★★★★ 2

  Abstruse, expressive and understated, Kuroki's highly inventive film "Silence Has No Wings" works as a haunting cinematic poem that amalgamates its genres from docu to road film, then melodrama to spy thriller- literally elucidates this smooth transition With artistic unconventionality. Director's elliptical vision doesn't offer any single interpretation, the true essence of this allegorical tale deals with such recurring themes that slowly forms the message it wants to deliver.

  Using Nagasaki and Hiroshima as locations, with mixed footage, this film reflects the consequences of war; love the interest it shows in capturing both psychological and bodily damage caused by the nuclear catastrophe, then the protests and struggles people faced in post-war Japan- all these are conveyed precisely with Kuroki's poetic…

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  Review by Callisto ★★★★½ 2

  It's a transcendental journey of a caterpillar to butterfly as it travels from Nagasaki to Hokkaido as the lives of some humans are shown along the way. Although without color, it's full of beauty and emotion. It's good to be alive.

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  Review by freelunch ★★★½

  This is one of those films that’s so deep rooted in its specific time and period that I didn’t completely get based on my sheet ignorance on the subject, but I still enjoyed it all the same. It’s basically a surreal depiction of the shared consciousness of post WWII Japan, symbolized by a caterpillar that travels the country. I saw someone say this was like a calmer, less angsty version of Throw Away Your Books, Rally in the Streets, which is apt, but this reminded me more of I Am Cuba. It’s got that dreamlike, teetering of the edge of a nightmare type quality to it that I love from that film so much. Plus this is full of wonderful camera work and a beautiful score that will be stuck in my head all day. Also Mariko Kaga! 😍

  Will definitely have to return to this one sometime.