Seven Nights in Japan

The beloved and greatly admired British director, Lewis 'Alfie' Gilbert's manifestly curious, somewhat obscure, demonstratively middle of the road, doomed 'odd-couple' romance, 'Seven Nights in Japan' (1976) even with all its torpid trivialities, remains quite a distracting, perhaps even genuinely touching, albeit terrifically twee love story about a bored, dashingly debonair Prince (Michael York) and his erstwhile beau, a disarmingly pretty tour guide (Hidemi Ioki) he meets while gleefully shirking his seemingly unexciting Royal duties; and, quite frankly, as cute, 'meet-cutes' go, it's pretty goddamn cute! While blatantly old fashioned in style and tone, almost absurdly sentimental, Lewis Gilbert's seemingly forgotten, 'Seven Nights in Japan' nonetheless has some considerable cinematic merit as a richly fascinating view/travelogue of 1970s Japan, with legendary French DP, Henri Decaë's tastefully roving camera giving us poor proles a rather Princely view of all the myriad exquisite, breathtakingly beautiful vistas that our handsome pair of magisterially mismatched movie lovers enjoy during their playful, picture book, romantic journey towards the inevitably soft-focus consummation! This unsophisticated, sweetly glutinous tale is pure narrative candyfloss, but not cloyingly so, and I was more than happy to wallow unthinkingly in its stupefying, reality-numbing, excessively sugary sentimentality until its somewhat underwhelming conclusion! I should also like to note that the film's acclaimed cinematographer, Henri Decaë, also shot Truffaut's landmark, '400 Blows' and Jean-Pierre Melville's hard-boiled Gallic-crime classic, 'Le Samouraï'!

Obviously based on the exploits of Prince Charles when he was in the Royal Navy.This is a pleasant sightseeing tour of Japan with a slight romantic plot and a rather silly sub plot involving attempted assassination. It was good to see such stalwart character actors as Peter Jones and Charles Grey.Lewis Gilbert had a long and successful career but this was not one of his better films.

Seven Nights in Japan... the boredom was unbearable after the first night. I had to give this film 1 star... not because it is utterly dreadful ( which it is), but because it has an unrealistically high rating from other reviewers who are either being extremely kind, they were extras in the film, or Michael York has numerous troll accounts..!? No spoilers in my review, if there were, it would be like admitting there is a plot worth spoiling... and there is'nt !

The main story, of a British prince running away and, by accident, becoming involved with a lovely and naive Japanese tour guide, is enchanting and lovely. There is a subplot concerning a bunch of loony patriots bent on assassinating the prince. This should have added an element of excitement and tension. Instead, it looks like what it is - a lame add-on to pad the film out to feature length. This subplot adds absolutely nothing to the film, and only properly intersects to story at one point. Pity. But don't let this put you off. This film is a sheer delight for any man who finds Asian women lovely, as well as anyone who is a sucker for romance and the lure of the exotic. Warmly recommended.

Allegedly based on another Prince, "Seven Nights in Japan", the story of Prince George should not disappoint fans of romantic cinema. The actress that plays the Princes love interest (Sumi) is sweet and beautiful and Michael York is in his prime. Highlights include Sumi singing Japanese love songs as a bus tour guide and the beautiful country locales. A gentle, elegant film.