Stunning movie especially if watched at the movies.

Whew, I made it through to the end. I can understand why people rate this film so highly. The premise is a good one and the characters are well rounded and nuanced. But this film dawdles. It dawdles a lot. When a director tries to make every single scene one of profound artistic import it's just pretentious.

It's been a long time since I watched something took my breath away like this!!Wonderful work. The images in this movie are exquisite. And the story..!!!

I don't even remember how I heard of this film's existence, or even why I was particularly curious to watch it - maybe due to my love of many Asian films and its premise, perhaps. But even so, this is a largely obscure drama, even for people who seek out Asian films, which is a shame, because Eureka is probably among the most outstanding, touching, heartbreaking, affecting, and hands down, one of the twenty greatest films I've ever watched. It's certainly not for everyone, as it is a foreign film and also its LONG running time which clocks in at over 3.5-hours in length. Not only that, but it demands every ounce of your patience and for you to pay attention to even the smallest of details. It's truly a film that tests the mettle of anyone who claims to enjoy art house films, or hell, anyone who claims to love films. It's a very demanding and meticulous film, but one that is worth the time as it rewards your patience by giving you an absorbing and complex drama that not only makes you think, but also makes you feel on a genuine level. The story begins with siblings, Naoki and Kozue, getting on a bus to go to school like every other day and with few other people on board - just a normal, everyday routine. That is, until things suddenly turn terrifying. After some footage of driving, the next shot is of a man running for his life in a parking lot before being gunned down. One of the passengers has taken over control and is holding everyone in the bus hostage, while the police attempt to negotiate with the hijacker. Things do not go well and in the end, six people - including the hijacker and a cop are left dead. Three on the bus are spared: Naoki and Kozue, and the driver, Makoto. Though they survived the incident, their lives are no longer the same. Naoki and Kozue withdraw from the outside world by leaving school, never leaving the house, and even become estranged from their parents. Things only get worse when their mother leaves and their father dies unexpectedly in a mysterious car accident, leaving them alone in the house and distant from the outside world. Meanwhile, Makoto's life has also fallen apart. He quit as a bus driver and became estranged from his wife and family, choosing to travel around to try and figure things out to no avail before returning to his family who seem to want nothing to do with him. Though he tries to make amends with them, it is in vain. He manages to find work as a day laborer thanks to an old school friend, which helps to keep his days occupied, but he is still struggling with his day-to-day existence and feels restless. Upon hearing about Naoki and Kozue, he decides to leave his family home and goes to live with the siblings by helping to maintain the house and prepare meals for them as they aren't able to properly care for themselves. He becomes a surrogate parent to them, trying to get them to emerge from their reclusive natures and manages to get Kozue to start speaking a little, while Naoki remains silent and enigmatic in what she's thinking. During this time, a murder of a woman occurs in town, and Makoto becomes a suspect in the case and is investigated by a cop that was there the day of the bus hijacking, but there is no real evidence against him. Things get strange again when the siblings' cousin, Akihiko comes to live with them at the behest of their relatives who are worried about their current living situation and are naturally suspicious of the motives of Makoto. Despite things starting off rather thorny between them, they become a makeshift family of sorts living day-to-day and trying to rebuild their lives. During this time, Makoto meets with his estranged wife and they end their marriage officially, expressing their regrets over how things ended and how Makoto dealt with the tragedy. But things get worse for Makoto when he is suspected yet again when another murder occurs - this time his friend and co-worker - and is arrested, but is released for a lack of evidence. Seeing how their lives are going, on a whim, Makoto buys an old bus with the intent to renovate it into an RV and take it on a road trip with the siblings and Akihiko as a way to get out and see the sights and escape their troubles. Akihiko finds it to be a stupid idea, but the group eventually goes along with the plan thanks to Naoki who is the first to get on the bus for a little test drive - officially deciding that the road trip is necessary for all of them. The resulting road trip will prove to be deciding factor for how their lives will turn out and showing how the tragedy truly affected them - redemption, bitterness, and shocking revelations. I may have told a great deal of the plot, but there are so many details that it's hard to not talk about all that goes on because well, there's A LOT that goes on in this film's ambitious, meticulous storytelling. However, there is a lot to be found in this story that my words will never express in a way that does Eureka the justice it deserves in its brave, harsh, and uncompromising storytelling. Among many things that makes its story so fascinating to follow is in how detailed the four main characters are and how it dissects them, but also keeps a great deal hidden away from the viewer before either revealing, or letting the viewer make their own interpretations. There are many layers to these characters and even with its long running time, there's still a great deal to discover and figure out for yourself. If only more dramas had such fascinating and developed characters. Another aspect is how it explores the nature of tragedy and how those affected deal with it in various ways. While the rest of us offer our condolences and prayers to the affected, we never truly know what they go through, especially if they go through something so horrific and traumatizing, and how the tragedy can deeply affect and even destroy those around them. It offers no easy answers to dealing with tragedy, whether it be overcoming it, remaining cynical over it, or succumbing to deep, dark depths, there are many variables and unpredictable elements that take hold as the victims try to put their lives back together or give up altogether as they are swallowed by the darkness. But in short, it's about the people caught up in the events of a tragedy and how they deal with it. It's a mixture of sorrow, shock, tragedy, but also in overcoming tragedy and starting anew. It's deeply affecting storytelling and not one page of the script, not one bit of the direction, not one shot, or anything for that matter, wastes. Everything is important in this story and it wants to lay it all out bare. The acting is superb across the board. In fact, it's hard to nail down a "best" performance so to speak, as each performance is unique and each is completely brilliant and believable. Koji Yakusho as Makoto is a man trying to rebuild his life and start anew, making the best of whatever situation he finds himself in and seeing the positivity. He's a man who refuses to surrender to the darkness of tragedy and instead wants to go forward. Aoi Miyazaki as Kozue is a troubled kid and one who struggles to cope with the tragedy. Though he speaks somewhat, unlike his sister, he struggles to see the good in situations and remains almost zombie-like, frozen in time from the events of that horrific day. Masaru Miyazaki is the most enigmatic of the four - never speaking and never really showing emotion (Or at least strong emotions). The viewer remains unsure of how the tragedy has affected her, having to rely on subtle expressions and actions to interpret before it is revealed at the end of the film. Yoichiro Saito as Akihiko is basically like a representation of the rest of us - those who observe tragedy from the outside and never really understanding of what the victims go through. His intentions are noble, and he helps as best he can, but also remains cynical about things, like Makoto's road trip plans, as well as other things revealed later in the story. He, too, is also ignorant - like the rest of us. We do the best we can to support and offer condolences, but we just don't get it. As far as entertainment goes, that really depends on how much you enjoy very talkative, very long, and very meticulous films with a lot going on. It's not something you can just pick up and watch any day, you have to make time for it and be alert and ready for all that it throws at you - it holds back nothing. If you dislike films because they have "too much talking" this is not for you. It has no patience or time for you, if you fall under this woeful category. But, if you're up for watching a complex, thought-provoking film that really demands every ounce of both your patience and thought processes, I'd definitely say to give this a shot. It's well worth it to watch it. Eureka is a brilliant, complex, emotionally-devastating, and also uplifting film that sadly few people have ever seen and few people will give a chance because of its running time (And also the fact that you need to read subtitles. No dubbing. Thank God). If you enjoy dramas, particularly art house dramas, Eureka is one you need to track down immediately. You won't regret it.

This is a wonderful 3 hours and 40 minute slow burner of a movie. It tells an enormously soul searching and moving story about three people's attempt to find meaning and purpose after experiencing a grizzly "busjacking". Director Shinji Aoyama lets the story and the characters unfold / develop at a very deliberate and slow pace. The cinematography is outstanding with the movie shot in a sepia tone until the very last scene when it changes to colour. The long running time will no doubt put people off from watching it. The performances of the cast, camera, director, and sound designer are all genuinely flawless. Two of the main characters (real life siblings Aoi and Masaru Miyazaki) don't say a word throughout the running time except Aoi's character who does manage to say something right at the end. Aoi Miyazaki was just 14 years old at the time of filming and embarking on the start of her successful movie career. She is fantastic in this movie. Overall, Eureka is a brilliant movie and even though it does drag at times I was never bored. Those that have the patience to watch all of it will find the movie a very rewarding experience.

This is a wonderful 3 hours and 40 minute slow burner of a movie. It tells an enormously soul searching and moving story about three people's attempt to find meaning and purpose after experiencing a grizzly "busjacking". Director Shinji Aoyama lets the story and the characters unfold / develop at a very deliberate and slow pace. The cinematography is outstanding with the movie shot in a sepia tone until the very last scene when it changes to colour. The long running time will no doubt put people off from watching it. The performances of the cast, camera, director, and sound designer are all genuinely flawless. Two of the main characters (real life siblings Aoi and Masaru Miyazaki) don't say a word throughout the running time except Aoi's character who does manage to say something right at the end. Aoi Miyazaki was just 14 years old at the time of filming and embarking on the start of her successful movie career. She is fantastic in this movie. Overall, Eureka is a brilliant movie and even though it does drag at times I was never bored. Those that have the patience to watch all of it will find the movie a very rewarding experience.

Een Japanse arthouse van dik 3,5 uur waar niet veel in gebeurde; dat het bleef boeien is best knap. =)

Astonishing drama about a bus driver and two children who survive a deadly busjacking, and reunite two years later, and take a cross country journey of redemption to put the past behind them, even in the shadow of an insidious new string of murders. A masterful tale, gorgeously shot in washed out sepia tones, "Eureka" never wastes a minute of its 3 1/2 hour running time, and delivers a powerful punch.

i can't stop looking at my watch while watching this film. At 217 minutes, this film feels a little bit overlong, in what was supposed to be a simple story.The beautiful cinematography, too bad, cannot help either

Monochromatic redemption told in an utterly poetic style. Don't get me started on my Koji Yakusho drooling, I can barely stand how brilliant the guy is...

After three and a half slow paced, sepia toned hours experiencing pain and anguish I still watched the credits roll. The film starts off with a guy hijacking a bus and killing most everyone on it. The driver and two middle school kids survive and we spend the rest of the film watching them live with it. We watch them fall asleep watching television and other mundane maneuvers but there is not a wasted frame in this movie. There are a remarkable number of plot points that keep the film moving forward but it still feels like suspended animation. Koji Yakusho is sublime and Aoi Miyazaki, at like twelve years old--and without saying a word the whole film--is mesmerizing. This film is a masterpiece.

Didn't realise it was 3.5hrs long until it finished...it hooked me! Such a pretty movie, and really touching characters (Koji Yakusho may be a new fav!). And to think the local library had this one...I'm impressed!

4 hour long, this Japanese film deals with survivors of a bus-hijack who go on a road trip - impressive sepia toned black and white cinematography. Dramatic yes, slow yes, sublime yes but it doesn't feel that painfully long!

...one of the most amazing movies i have seen lately. It is a sepia-couloured, over 3 hours long, slow-paced film, with little dialogue and soundtrack but with excellent cinematography and a documentary-style characterized by long shots. Rest assured, somehow the usual "draggy, pretentious art-film stereotype" does not fit this one. It is a highly psychological story about human condition, interpersonal communication and the desperate quest for hope and reason, innate in every human being. I find it amazing how such intensity and complexity of feelings can be conveyed by such simplicity. It achieves what other movies may never be able to, it is moving without being pathetic and indeed every second of it is essential for the entire whole. I also believe that what I have just seen is not necessarily better compared to other films with similar themes. It just speaks a different language. This makes it very difficult to compare it to other movies or to rate it according to this regular star- system.

a meditative jewel !

This is an eerily entrancing experience delivered up by director Shinji Aoyama. Shot in black and white, but on colour film, the images drift into sepia or become almost pastel tones. "Eureka" is primarily a visual experience, one of the most lyrically beautiful pieces of cinema I've ever seen. Yet such a bleak story! A bus is hijacked. People die. There is no evident reason - the crime is random, chaotic, motiveless. The survivors are the driver and two school children, a brother and sister. Now, leap forward two years. How have they coped? What effect has the violence had on their lives? The children have lost their parents and are alone in a big house. They do not speak. The bus driver moves in with them, acting as their parents, or simply as someone who can understand their pain and confusion. Perhaps the only one who can. The children appear to communicate telepathically. Meanwhile, a series of murders has begun and the prime suspect is the bus driver. The driver looks for some cathartic experience to help them get on with their lives. He buys a bus. Together they transform it into a mobile home and set off on a journey. Bus drivers follow the same route day in, day out. But this is a magical mystery tour, a process of self-discovery. Shinji Aoyama says that he was influenced by John Ford's "The Searchers", in which John Wayne searches for a young Natalie Wood, a child kidnapped in an Indian raid. "Eureka" doesn't have the overt violence and anger of Wayne's character. Makoto, the driver, is a much gentler individual. But the theme of the film is one of searching - for the lost voices, the lost emotions, the loss of self. Does violence contaminate the victim? Makoto wonders if it has infected them all. As a victim of violence he has been powerless. Perhaps the only way a victim can recover is to exert power over others, to violate, terrorise, and brutalise others. Would the act of murder free him of the guilt of survival? They take off in the bus in search of rebirth. "Eureka" is a long film - three and a half hours. Its plot is a narrow strand. This is the antithesis of the action movie. Much of the filming is in long shot, with the actors distant figures. There are no close-ups. The visuals are extraordinary. Much use is made of the intense contrast of black and white - night time shots, use of sunlight and shade, dense dark scenes with only a central pool of light. The camera frames a scene and holds it, dwells on it languidly. There are long silences. The film could have been cut in half, but this frozen timelessness is an essential part of the experience the survivors endure. There is virtually no music - a couple of almost ironic intrusions. The sound is entirely naturalistic. The black and white filming seems to enhance the notion of reality. It's as if you are watching a documentary, intruding on the intimate lives of victims, watching through distant cameras with only the sounds of nature and the modern world to intrude. And so much of the film presents you with pattern and graphic imagery: the stripes and checks of clothing, the stripes of wooden boards, the patterns of the natural world, of roads and railways. The pattern of the bus driver's routine has been shattered. For the victims there is no longer any pattern to life, just a bland sameness, day after day. Instead, life flows like water. Much use is made of the images of water, of the natural cycle of rain flowing though the streams and rivers back to the sea. In the sea lies rebirth, in the sea lies hope and self-discovery. But this is one of the most joyously hopeful and positive films I've ever seen. Bleak, set in a rural Japan which offers up none of the usual clichés of Japanese life, it transcends its extraordinary visual richness to offer up a hymn to the struggle of modern man, woman and child, searching for an explanation, for a reason for life in the face of violence and the unpredictable. It is a potent, powerful statement about the need to be reborn, to rediscover self and a sense of purpose. An outstanding film, but not one which is going to capture everyone's imagination. It's a film you grow into. It's a film which you visually enjoy. It's a film in which, as you recognise the struggle faced by the survivors, you too begin to imagine your own need for a pilgrimage of self-discovery. Outstanding, but I suggest you rent it in the first instance ... and see how quickly it grows on you.

I often find myself complaining of films being slow or get slow in the middle or something. Well this film was slow, slow, slow but great, fantastic, skill. Throughout the whole 208 minutes, I didn't once got bored - which is something considering it's a lengthy study of how a trio of people struggle to deal with a traumatic experience, including two of them going mute. I knocked a half star off for a fairly petty reason - the lead character's coughing got a bit annoying after a while - how did he ever get to sleep?! Highly recommended - ha, almost forgot to mention there's six or seven minutes of Jim O'Rourke on the soundtrack (although there's a 190 min wait for it!), the song Eureka being an inspiration of some sort.

Slow at times but beautifully shot and acted. The story was effectively communicated with little dialogue. An intriguing look into Japanese culture. Great film, loved the ending.

life in its shades of grey.....

An honest and eloquent meditation on the narrative of life, death and the search for meaning in between. Like Ran, much of this is shot from a distance giving the movie a powerful sense of space, loss and longing. Bleak, with much of the film cast under a shadow of silence but offering suggestions of hope and redemption. The director handles the unfurling of events magically and makes little concession to modern pacing. An unforgivably trite response to this movie: soft strong and very very long. Spoiler alert - is the bus jacker at the start a grown up version of the teenager?