The Garden of Evening Mists

This movie should be lauded for ambition. Tackling an issue like comfort women isn't going to be easy. Compound it with other heavy weights like loyalty, independence, then adding intrigues like the gold of Yamashita and trying to present them in a digestible package under 2 hours, the problem is obvious. The central love theme could not be developed convincingly. In a more assured hand like Ozu, the quiet scenes could have been really evocative. With some one like Kurosawa, the tension of the hanging, violence of rape or unstated pressure of recall etc would have been palpable. Instead it is presented rather without emotion. Even the pain of the tattoo just could not lift beyond the screen. But credit must be given to the producers and director for their attempt. Sufficient time has passed for the history of WW2 to be visited with an objective eye. Hope HBO would continue to put their resources into making such movies.

Very subtle movie. Many things left unsaid in words but they were understood by feelings, gestures, meaningful silence and actions.

A movie about healing, about romance, about coping with the horrors of war and difficult realities.

This is a story of Yun Ling (played beautifully and seamlessly by both Sylvia Chang and Angelica Lee) who through series of flashback and present day scenes, tells of her experiences under the occupation of the Japanese during the second world war and apprenticeship under the former royal gardener of Japan, Aritomo (absolutely amazing Hiroshi Abe), after the war. The background to the movie is the glorious Cameron Highlands in the state of Pahang in Malaysia , the essence and beauty of it captured beautifully by the cinematographer, Kartik Vijay. The multicultural cast, consisting of mainly Malaysian, Singapore, Taiwan, Japan and British actors, were just sublime and amazing under the direction of Tom Lin. Tom managed to capture the spirit and the beauty of the book of the same title by award winning Penang author , Tan Twan Eng. I had the absolute honour of being invited to the gala viewing in Penang (thanks to GL Ooi and Penang Monthly!). From the opening scene I was amazed that Tom Lin managed to capture the lives, hopes and fears of the people of Malaysia during and after the war. The multilingual dialogue truly exemplifies the multicultural melting pot of Malaysia. The philosophy of perfection in the creation of the garden just drives home the dedication involved in bringing the original source to life. When the end credits rolled, I was amazed to find out that the crews were mostly Asians... For me this is the truly Asian (Malaysian) movie and will deserve all the accolades that will be bestowed upon the cast, crew and the author of this movie. This is a movie that I will watch again and again and will never be tired of!

This is a lovely tale slowly told so you can savor. Not so you can savor the horrors of murder, nor the horrors of rape, not even the horrors of institutional rape and murder, war. I think it's so you can savor everything you can't get out of your head. If that includes horrors you yourself have perpetrated then it does. In this story we savor a point of view that feels singularly Japanese. I kept being reminded of Shinto, especially in the view inside the square. In this story we have an antiterrorist survivor of the Japanese work camp the Golden Lily looking to honor her sister who died in the camp. She seeks the former gardener to the Japanese emperor who lives in Malaysia now. He can help her create the garden her sister always dreamed of aloud to while away the time in the camp.

I never read the book here, so I didn't know what I was in for when I stumbled upon the 2019 movie "The Garden of Evening Mists" here in 2022. I saw that the movie had Julian Sands on the cast list, and that was all I needed to know, as he is one of my favorite actors.

The storyline in "The Garden of Evening Mists", as written by author Twan Eng Tan and then made for the screen by writer Richard Smith, definitely was a beautiful and heartfelt story. It is difficult not to get swept away by the storytelling here and investing emotions into the characters and situations portrayed in the movie, especially since it is all so very realistic and down to Earth.

Director Tom Lin managed to put the script into a beautiful visual movie on the screen, one that I think will have a wide appeal to a broad audience. Because there is something for just about anyone to take away from a movie such as "The Garden of Evening Mists".

The movie jumps between Cantonese, English and Japanese language, but does so very nicely. And having these natural languages in the situations appropriate adds so much realism to the movie. And the movie also jumps between the past and present, letting the audience follow the characters in different times. This was also done very nicely, and brought lots of layers to the movie as well.

Something that definitely carried the movie a great long way was the cast ensemble. The movie has some pretty amazing names on the cast list, with the likes of Angelica Lee, Sylvia Chang, Hiroshi Abe, Julian Sands and John Hannah. It was good performances from the cast ensemble, and they brought the characters and story to life in a very enjoyable manner.

"The Garden of Evening Mists" was a pleasant surprise of a movie, one that provided me with genuine entertainment. However, I think the pacing of the narrative might throw off some viewers, as it is a somewhat slow paced narrative.

My rating of "The Garden of Evening Mists" lands on a six out of ten stars.