2 things I was sure of this movie, it has Ikuta Toma and it's a visual feast (do watch the stills of this movie if you happen to like photography). I was disappointed by neither, there's rarely a movie is made that makes earth look better than heaven and a mortal to flow within this imagery.
The only misstep of this movie is it's story, it's rather complicated and because of the two directional flow of it(one features Genji and other features writer of his story), it tends to loose it's focus.
But then again, "Genji Monogatari (The Tale of Genji),” Murasaki Shikibu's 1000 year old masterpiece is compared to bible for it's influence on Japan as a culture and was considered unfilmable. So props to the script writer for managing to tell the story within considerable time frame without drowning the viewer with information and names.
The cast did an amazing job portraying their character, I couldn't take my eyes of Ikuta, he's a delight to watch! Sigmund Freud wold love to meet and analyze Genji's character as the earliest example of Oedipus complex for sure ;)
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