Always - Sunset on Third Street (2005)

this is the best film i've seen. it emotes and moves you. Idealistic and simplistic (how can you avoid them in a two-hour media) but still captures the essence of Tokyo pre-economic boom and Japan's march toward materialism. Hope, innocence, inter-dependence, both individually and societally, are wonderfully captured in this film. Acting for the roles of Ippei, Tomoe, Roku, and Junnosuke are superb. The background music is excellent. Memorable scenes: Ippei and friends flying airplane, Roku and Ippei meeting for the first time and exchanging greetings in Roku's Tohoku dialect, Ippei noticing Roku crying in her room the first night at the Suzuki's and Ippei asks, "What happened? Do you have a stomach-ache?" Ah, the innocence lost. Where have you gone?

I had the chance to see this film because a friend brought the DVD back from Japan. Otherwise I don't think I would ever have had the opportunity to watch it.The cover of the DVD says "Over 270 million people have cried" over this film. I don't doubt that for a moment. This movie is funny, serious, sweet, suspenseful, hilarious and totally satisfying.The special effects are beautifully rendered and reminded me of what Steven Spielberg might have done if he were making this film. The setting of Tokyo in 1958 is seamlessly recreated, as characters in this film are placed into footage of a 1950's Japanese film.I would love to know how they did this, and I'm going to research it. As soon as I find out I'll update this post.Everything about this film is romantic. Don't miss it.

This is a very touching and well-made film, but someone sprinkled it with a little too much fairy dust. I was with it every step of the way, handkerchief in hand for the clockwork gushes that punctuate virtually every dramatic segment with almost pornographic regularity. But this is not a very honest picture of life in Tokyo in 1958, in spite of the insistence that the construction of the city (the bigger picture of society, economy, etc represented by the gradual erecting of Tokyo Tower in the background) is of a piece with the micro-narratives of small individuals going about life on an inconsequential block somewhere in the urban sprawl. Still, whatever project this Disney-esquire nostalgia is serving, I can't discount the film's magic too much. I'm one to prefer a little dark cynicism over what strikes me as a kind of Tinkerbell fraudulence, but I have to admit that this movie is pretty good at what it does.

This movie is based on 2 things, technology and nostalgia.Computer graphics reappear the scenery of Tokyo 40 years before,it's so wonderful and filled with humanity.Current Tokyo city might be not so beautiful and humanity lost anywhere,so almost scenery evokes nostalgia.Although the story is not so rich, fine episodes are often planned. The character of the doctor who lost wife and a child in war is excellent.The figure of the Japanese who were gazing at the future being captured in the past for a while, calls sympathy.If you have never been to Tokyo City in 1960's,you can go now by seeing this movie.