Terumae romae

A bath architect from ancient Rome keeps drowning and appearing in baths in modern Japan, get back to his own time and recreates the baths of the modern world in the best ways he can. The film is as crazy as it sounds from the plot and manages to be hilarious throughout. I didn't mind the minor problems it had in terms of the production. White actors speaking in English being dubbed over, while Japanese actors cast as Romans speaking Japanese looked weird and there were some special effects that were a bit tacky but it all went with the tone of the film. The recreation of ancient Rome itself has been done pretty well. The concept of innovation and the morale of the public psyche being connected to baths is not something you associate all the time but it does make sense. I love these types of crazy storylines.

Lucius Modestus (Hiroshi Abe) is a hardworking bath builder in ancient Rome, but he's behind the times and no longer getting work. He can only think when under water and one day at the baths, under water, he sees something bubbling; when he investigates, he is sucked into a vortex that suddenly thrusts him out of the water.... and into a bath-house in modern-day Japan! Assuming that all the "Flat-Faced Clan" are slaves, he marvels at the bath and water-related technology available to them; he becomes emotional at the taste of a "milk-fruit" drink and soon finds himself back in Rome. But now he's back in Rome with new ideas for baths, and it isn't long before his fame bring him to the attention of Emperor Hadrianus (Masachika Ichimura). Meanwhile, young Mami (Aya Ueto) has failed in her quest to become a published manga star, and she's fired when she lets Lucius escape from his first modern-day adventure. Seeing him, she has found her new hero – to draw, that is – and she can only hope that he will appear again. As, of course, he does, several times.... When I read the description of this film, I knew it was going to be top of my list for 2013 FantAsia films to see, and I was very much not disappointed in it; the very premise is hilarious (did you know, for example, that ancient Romans all spoke Japanese and, well, most of them were Japanese? Or that an ancient Roman would, when asked the year, casually reply, "it's 135 AD"? Totally goofy, with a touch of romance besides, by the end even dour Lucius has a smile on his face. I hope I can find this on DVD, is all I can say!

This short film is about the story of Lucious, a roman architect, who leapt through time to modern Japan which makes him gain experiences and knowledge of building hot spring so he can apply these knowledge to Roman hot spring. First off, I like the plot of this film. it is very creative and different from other time-traveling films that I have ever watched. This movie is totally an entertainment since you do not have to think about the action of characters or why it happened too much but just enjoy the film. The plot is not complicated. The main actor of this film looks so alike with Roman people even he is Japanese. However, this movie is originated from comic book. So, there are some parts that might be frustrating to watch. For example, the movie itself is more like a gag cartoon that are divided into episodes. So, each apart of the film is not continue with other parts. Also, I don't really feel like it is necessary to have a female character who is the second main actor of this film in this movie in this film and forcibly put romantic plot between Lucious and that female character.

The main character Lucius is A bath Licensed designer in Roma. He is serious and considers Roman bath culture so his works aren't received. One day, he travels through time to the modern Japan for strange reason. In modern Japan, He sees a comic artist Mami and he is surprised at polishing Japanese bath culture. He goes back Roma and designs novel bath using Japanese idea. And he becomes famous licensed designer.

One of noticeable points is that casts have strong featured faces. The reason is to reproduce Roman. The tempo of story line and change scenes is good. Story runs at a blazing speed, which helps to complete this movie as comedy movie and to make the movie more funny.

We can watch this film with a light heart. If you want to spend useless and funny time, I recommend this movie. I laughed a lot and enjoy it.

I felt the humor of the original comic was depicted in the movie faithfully! A ancient Roman architect named Lucius was led modern Japanese bath house, sentoh. There he got some ideas of Romen bath architecture, Thermae Romae. He called modern Japanese flat-faced people. That way to call was very funny! Also Romen people were played these Japanese actors have distinct facial features, Hiroshi Abe, Kazuki Kitamura and Masachika Ichimura. So an actress of heroine couldn't find them in true European extras. I felt like the ending was twisted. But I liked it because it got to the point.