Popular reviews

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  Review by reibureibu 6

  Crimes of identity, of lost existences and lost histories. Who is a person without their history? Unstructured, unformed, unmade – but also unbound, free to be whatever they want. Social upheaval brings with it blindness, the inherent dissonance and inconsistency in change overlooked in favor of enforced harmony. What happens to those who are left without a place? Who are left without a history? A burial ground without testament.

  Some may say the coincidences here border on improbable, but it is more accurate to say they are inevitable. Even among those intentionally forgotten, those freed from the ties that bond, history leaves marks. They become its revenants.

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  Review by D Rock ★★★

  A police procedural that reaaalllly takes its time on its way to becoming a whopper of a three-hanky melodrama. I had a lump in my throat, the lead detective was crying, the whole room of cops being briefed was wiping their eyes, it was a mess!

  After an older man is found dead in a rail yard in Tokyo, the lead detective charged with first finding out the man's identity and then solving his murder (Tetsuro Tamba) follows leads that take him on long languorous rail journeys to various far-flung corners of Japan. If you're in a hurry for stuff to happen, you're shit out of luck. But the meticulous detail we're provided with - down to the subtitles providing…

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  Review by Jerry McGlothlin ★★★ 6

  You keep your past in a box, hidden away under lock and key, but no matter how much mileage and years you try to put between yourself and its contents, there’s always someone out there waiting, with another key, to open it up again; and tragedy envelops all when the pain is too great to bear.

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  Review by Jamerlich ★★★

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

  The procedural's procedural. Shows every beat and question for 90 minutes pacing be dammned, only to end on an hour long tear jerker reveal with great cinematography and a triumphant score that unfortunately over stays it's much needed welcome.

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  Review by Austin Langdon ★★★

  Every society has people they try to hide away, to erase from existence in the public consciousness and to push out of view and attention. In modern liberal democracies we push the homeless out of view. We lock up criminals in prisons and then forget them. We push the human beings whose slave labor is used to make our apple products and clothes out of view. In The Castle of the Sand, we see a story about a killer and a victim, the latter representing the model citizen, the former representing the forgotten one. 

  Miki, the victim, is praised for his deeds and perspective. He helps people, regardless of who they are… illegitimate children, the convicts, the lepers, the orphans,…

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  Review by Filipe Furtado ★★★½

  Very detailed crime procedural whose length becomes the point as the catch the killer and the whys get more intertwined. Engrossing, well cast and Nomura isvery good at shifting between the nuts and bolts of the investigation and the larger human canvas he is working on.

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  Review by Callisto ★★★★★ 2

  I can't think of anything I can write without spoiling it. This film is a must-watch and for several reasons. There are a few things I can say, though, such as giving praise for its story, direction, cinematography, score, sound design, and acting. There's no other film like this. It might be to slow for some, but I can assure you it's worth it. Even if it is slow, it was never boring to me, and the film was over before I knew it because I was that engaged.

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  Review by Avirup

  The highlight here is the beautifully photographed tour around Japan full of stunning images with a really nice score. The patient and detailed police procedural of the first half is also quite strong and keeps things interesting. It makes a strange transition in the second half, not all of it works but certainly the heart was in the right place and the ending is touching. Overall the structure is pretty solid, it's a little overlong but mostly a decent work.

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  Review by 🇵🇱 Steve G 🇵🇸 ★★★★½ 3

  The Fourth Summer of Scam

  Steve's Priority Watchlist Project

  I mentioned on my review of Any Number Can Win just yesterday that I love watching films which show people being very good at their jobs.

  It's a conflicted feeling to have when the film you're watching is a cop one, sure, but still a feeling I couldn't shake off watching Tetsurô Tanba painstakingly piece together seemingly tiny clues about the murder of an old man in Tokyo. This is an actual procedural film - where nothing seems to be omitted in lieu of a faster pace or more 'excitement'.

  Yoshitarô Nomura supposes that the interest will be generated from Tanba getting closer and closer to finding the culprit. It's a…

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  Review by Oscar Lau ★★★★

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

  What drives a man to murder? Among the best police procedural and detective stories, this question has been bought up million times and one doesn’t necessarily agree with the ‘answer,’ since in majority a murder is beyond rationality. Hence it is always fascinating to read a novel or watch a film that indulges on that rhetorical question. And Japanese detective story THE CASTLE OF SAND is among one of the best of its kind. I have read the original novel by Seicho Matsumoto a decade ago, unavoidably my memory on the story is quite vague now but still I remember liking it enough to find the film version immediately after.

  Yoshitaro Nomura’s 1974 film is often regarded as one of…

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  Review by DepresedBergman ★★★★

  This is one of the most beautifully woven movies I've ever watched. It's painfully slow but at the same time, so rewarding; just the concert sequence towards the end proves it. The message of the movie is powerful enough at the end along with the sadness it evokes out of us.

  The police procedural is lengthy and so thorough. Through that we are shown a number of beautiful landscapes of Japan. So its totally worth it. Tetsurô Tanba's acting was so casual and it suited the movie. Though Kazuhide Haruta (as the young boy) didn't utter a single word, we are shown his frustrations, loneliness he suffered because of the outside world through his emotions. It was so wonderful. Also the casting of Gô Katô was perfect. If anything, there were a couple of sequences which could've been avoided to reduce the film by at least 10 minutes.

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  Review by Fnord ★★★★

  The only problem I have with this film is how great the first 1/4 is. If only it had stayed focused on the two detectives trekking around rural Japan, in all its bucolic malevolence, hunting down leads. Still, I very much enjoyed what this actually was: A solid mystery that feels adapted from the novelization of an episode of Japanese Columbo. Oh and just one more thing....you should check it out.