While it veers away from some of his more standard work, director Kiyoshi Kurosawa is back with the simplistic but truly brilliant experience in To The Ends Of The Earth.
Yoko (Atsuko Maeda) is a little introverted, very cautious but the incredibly driven host of her travel TV show. While on assignment in Uzbekistan; accompanied by her cynical director (Shota Sometani), a cameraman (Ryo Kase), an AD (Tokio Emoto), and a local Japanese speaking guide (Adiz Radjabov) she searches for a mythical fish, samples culinary delicacies, and seeks out other wonders in a land that often appears strange and hostile. With everything going wrong in what feels like a disastrous shoot, she finds herself adrift in a foreign city and more lost then she had ever truly realized.
There’s an unexpected amount of dry humour that goes hand in hand with the humanity here in To The Ends Of The Earth as Kurosawa makes a film that not only has a positive human message about embracing the differences we all have, especially while in new cultures but also isn’t afraid to poke a little fun at some of the genuine banalities in modern entertainment.
Easily one of his smartest projects since Penance, Kurosawa here is working outside of his comfort zone and thanks to a really strong performance from Atsuko Maeda you won’t have to go To The Ends Of The Earth to see this film if you missed it at TIFF because there’s no doubt it’s coming back.
- Release Date: 9/10/2019
