Reviews

I don't have an interesting angle from which to talk about Miss Hokusai. It's too slow. The stories aren't connected well enough to maintain interest throughout. The art is quite good, especially the main character's expressive facial design, but it's not great overall. Most of the men look the same, in a bad way. The musical choices are sometimes baffling.

The movie is only about an hour and a half and I watched it a piece at a time over multiple weeks, if that gives an impression of what a slog it can be if you're not totally sold on its presentation. I remember liking Oei from the beginning, but I lost interest at some point early on. Nonetheless, I still felt that continuing it would be worth it, and the last few stories were the best. I think I was right to keep going.

It has a lot of pathos on its side. Oei isn't sure what her life is going to turn out to be, and neither are we. Is it going to really matter at all? Who knows? But she was there, and she was at least a small part of the history of city where she lived. Now she's at least a small part of mine. And I suppose that's all we can ask for.