Eureka (2000)

Director:

Shinji Aoyama

Writer:

Shinji Aoyama (written by)

Release Date:

17 November 2000 (Greece)

Genre:

Drama

Plot Keywords:

Road Trip | Coughing | Fukuoka Japan | Bus Driver | Orphan

Awards:

4 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Kôji Yakusho	...	Makoto Sawai
Aoi Miyazaki	...	Kozue Tamura
Masaru Miyazaki	...	Naoki Tamura
Yôichirô Saitô	...	Akihiko
Sayuri Kokushô	...	Yumiko
Ken Mitsuishi	...	Shigeo
Gô Rijû	...	Busjack Man
Yutaka Matsushige	...	Matsuoka
Sansei Shiomi	...	Yoshiyuki Sawai
Kimie Shingyôji	...	Mother
Denden
Eihi Shiina	...	Keiko Kono
Yûji Nakamura
Eimei Esumi
Yôko Noma

Also Known As:

Eureka (International: English title)
Yûrika (Japan) (promotional title)

Runtime:

217 min

Country:

Japan | France

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Black and White (Sepiatone) | Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS

Certification:

Hungary:14 | France:U | Germany:12 | Netherlands:16 | Sweden:11 | UK:15 | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | Brazil:14

Company:

DENTSU Music And Entertainment

Soundtrack:

Eureka

a captivating drama

the first thing i heard about this movie was that it would be a 3.5 hours long black and white movie with a minimum of dialogues. that was all i needed to know to impatiently anticipate seeing Eureka. it took a while and it only showed in three cinema's here in belgium, in one cinema each month for they had only one copy of the film, so when i heard it played i found myself lucky to finally see it with a showing rate of once a day only five days/week. a bit surprised but then again could've guessed not a lot of people where in the (very)small theatre. as for most movies i anxiously await i held my breath, but this one captured me from the start. ok, better said: after the first scene is over you get involved with the three survivors of the bus-jacking, the driver and two kids - who never speak again from that day on and seem to live on their own (no one seems to know what ever happened to their parents... which is great, i love certain things that aren't explained in the movies,). but now i give away more than i like when writing about movies (this thing about the parents isn't even that important to the story, hence the give-away of this detail) *also, note that i saw this movie in september 2001 and never found it again to see or buy (if anyone has it and wants to get rid of it...)* the film is split up in three major parts. the first describes the fall and 'resurrection' of the driver, the second focusses on the children and how the three meet up again and try to bring their lives back into balance, the last part takes you on a final road trip through the country in a bus turned camper as a final solution type of thing. the last seconds hold a nice little surprise! (k, not a big o' deal - allthough it has this particular distinct meaning,wich i found quite amusing! -and will b lost for 99% of the viewers- the meaning that is) i know the duration was a turn of for a lot of people and i guess i can understand why most find Eureka boooring, but people like that never ever see these things in their whole perspective. if this movie were to've been made more up-tempo'd, it would've lost it's charm toootally. stories like these won't be told just that easily, it has to be absorbed in it's entirety, so one can feel every emotion intended, also gives you a bit time to think about things as you see them unfold instead of afterwords when you have to recollect the whole movie (which i did anyway but hey) this is a must-see-movie when being a moviejunk (especially the anti-hollywood-cinemaniacs) are u an emotional type? with eyes for beauty? see it.