To Tokyo

This epic leads an extremely young and extremely awkward woman with haunted eyes on a journey guided by a monstrous beast into the rural wilds of Japan. Alice doesn't look a day over 18 but is living like a 40 year old divorced woman in a remote village inn, surrounded by empty dishes and old alcohol bottles, perched on her mat on the floor. Clearly experiencing a nervous breakdown or some kind of mental illness, Alice has escaped from her past to isolate herself in a country where no one knows her but she seeks something resembling peace.

This movie is admittedly going to try the patience of most viewers in that it has very little dialogue, is highly symbolic, fades in and out of reality and fantasy with the ease of a revolving door, and gives very little away about Alice until the last 20 minutes.

This would have made a better short film than a 74 minute movie. Watch the first 15 or 20 minutes, then skip to the last 20 minutes of the film. You won't miss anything and will save yourself a lot of time.

The lack of dialog leaves a lot to be desired and is not compensated with really striking or beautiful visuals. The film does not even try to show off the stunningly beautiful countryside in Japan. Overall, it is not a bad concept but one that should have been done in 20 to 30 minutes max.

You could easily chop 20 minutes out of this film just cutting the meaningless and uninteresting scenes of Tokyo, traffic, or mindless wandering around by the main character. Replace it with some actual communication to setup the main character, her sister, and others, then you might have a better film. Show more of the family dynamic and how this girl is living alone in Japan.

At first it was interesting, the part in the village, but, the more the film is towards the end, the less I liked it.

Sequences of her doing stuff without knowing or understanding why she does them. Almost no dialogue does not help to get a better experience.

The landscaping is awesome and beautiful so if you like the photography you are going to enjoy it.

Personally, I loved the music, the experimental vocal, or kind of, parts. The female chorus throughout all the movie.

So in general a weak movie for dialogue lovers and I suppose a great movie for those who love more "artsie" films or Japan.