... A film that splits itself into (too) many zones with uneven results, yet, it regales us with a few scenes of enormous sensibility and intensity. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Apr 26, 2023

While Still the Water feels pleasant, its existential questions are frustratingly left untraversed by its subtlety.

| Mar 11, 2023

A gentle, quiet, intimate but big-seeming film.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 3, 2023

Naomi Kawase’s story of teenagers in love on a Japanese island is layers of solemn packaging around a banal center.

| Original Score: C | Mar 2, 2023

Given the thoughtfulness that went into framing the formative story of Kaito and Kyoko, it's all the more sad to see the narrative lack any real emotional repercussions.

| Sep 7, 2020

Kawase tackles these large-scale motifs with a calm, zen-like approach, making Still the Water a pleasant viewing experience.

| Original Score: 7.2/10 | Jun 15, 2019

All the mystical-tree footage in the world can't lift the torpor.

| Original Score: 2/5 | May 3, 2018

Despite Naomi Kawase's claims prior to the film's world premiere at Cannes, Still the Water is not her masterpiece, and it's uncertain she will ever actually make one.

| Nov 21, 2017

Still the Water has its shortcomings, but redundancy is not one, and while it may not be profound, it is far from simple.

| Original Score: B- | Mar 12, 2016

Kawase's imagery is haunting but oblique, resulting in a film that's beautiful to look at, but a tad baffling.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 6, 2015

At times it's too schematic for its own good, but there's a musical quality which harmonises the script's rockier edges, and the use of diegetic song is powerful and engaging.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 5, 2015

It's a film that takes an awfully long time to say not very much but, boy, is it beautifully shot.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 3, 2015

While the images chosen by the Japanese arthouse director Naomi Kawase are exquisite and arresting, the narrative is a dull, New Age meander.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 2, 2015

This Japanese teen love story from Naomi Kawase is mired in emo histrionics and limp drama.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 2, 2015

While beautiful, early scenes of shocking violence give way to philosophising and gauche symbolism.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 29, 2015

Enigmatic, exotic, erotic: three adjectives commonly bandied about in discussion about Naomi Kawase's films. Not for her latest outing, though.

| Jan 9, 2015

It's clear that Japanese director Naomi Kawase has poured her heart and soul into every frame of this wishy-washy drama... That makes it all the more depressing that the end results are so resoundingly uninvolving and off-putting.

| Jan 9, 2015

It's a very beautiful and moving film.

| Jan 9, 2015

Kawase's filmmaking is richest when it's most woozily idealistic. It's when she strains for meaning, for circle-of-life conflict, that the film palls.

| Original Score: C | May 30, 2014

...an enthralling coming of age story.

| Original Score: B+ | May 22, 2014