A Scene at the Sea

A Scene at the Sea (1991) is a Japanese drama by Takeshi Kitano you can watch online on iFILM. Shigeru is a young deaf garbage collector who finds a broken surfboard on his route one morning. He throws it away. Then goes back for it.

Almost nothing is explained after that. Kitano shoots Shigeru's progression — from awkward first attempts in shallow water to something approaching real ability — without commentary or sentimentality. His girlfriend, also deaf, watches from the beach and keeps showing up. The film has almost no dialogue; composer Joe Hisaishi's score does the emotional work that most films would give to words. The other surfers laugh, then stop laughing.

Made in 1991 as Kitano's second directorial effort and completely unlike his crime films, this is a picture about stubbornness and summer and the specific quiet of someone who has found the one thing they want to do. It asks the viewer to slow down and pay attention to small changes. Stream A Scene at the Sea online on iFILM.