The camera rarely moves and yet there are images here as strikingly lovely as any you've seen and others as sweetly alive.

| Apr 26, 2019

It is a sombre and painful drama, enacted with reserve.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 24, 2019

Each character moves and speaks differently, shining with the complex inner life of a real person with real needs, real memories, real thoughts.

| Jul 21, 2018

The tale is told in contemplative wide-angle shots; the absence of any spurious, unearned intimacy with the characters makes the climactic scenes profoundly moving.

| Jun 24, 2006

The film uses natural lighting exclusively, eschewing staged settings as often as possible and keeping some nighttime scenes entirely in the dark, an eerie mirror to Yumiko's wounded heart.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jul 25, 2004

The film, which was made with only natural light, draws the viewer into its spiritual mood with one breathtaking shot after another, as the camera draws back to contemplate Yumiko from afar.

Full Review | May 20, 2003

Nothing is casual and nothing is wasted in Maborosi.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jan 1, 2000

Maborosi is one of those valuable films where you have to actively place yourself in the character's mind. There are times when we do not know what she is thinking, but we are inspired with an active sympathy.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jan 1, 2000