Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

Zandra The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Allissa .Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

jose_moscardo Well, what can I say? I am Spanish and I am a little familiarized with Japan and Japanese culture, my girlfriend is a Japanese girl living in Tokyo and I have visited the city. In my humble opinion, the portrait of Tokyo in this movie could be one of its limited virtues because at least is trying to show a different point of view focused not only on the typical tourist pictures but also on some not so glamorous places as small restaurants of ramen, a cemetery or a market for selling fish. Soundtrack is interesting and well chosen too, and nothing to complain about photography of the French Jean-Claude Larrieu. About Isabel Coixet, her work as a director is competent and even it has a "touch" more Japanese than Spanish (more concentrated on the silences or natural sounds than the dialogs or artificial noises, for example).Until here the positive. Now the not so positive, always in my opinion. First, the story. A professional killer falling in love with his (her) victim and breaking his (her) own rules with bad consequences. How many times we have watched this kind of story in a movie? Too many times, I think. Second (and specially), the main actor. Sergi López. He is a respected actor here in Spain, but sorry, to choose him as the man able to light some fire in the cold heart of Ryu is one of the biggest mistakes I have seen in a casting for a movie. Sergi López, let's be honest, is not tall, not sophisticated, too old for Ryu and also scandalously fat for this kind of character. He is not charming, his face is the face of a farmer or a boxer and his voice is annoying in its vulgarity.Again, sorry Sergi López, but nobody can believe that a very young Japanese girl can kill herself because of you, and also another young girl can fall in love with you until the extreme to risk her own life. Everything in only one month. Wow, are you some kind of Spanish chubby Bond with a special skill for melting Japanese girls? Isabel Coixet is a woman, and it's supposed a clever one. Does she believe the script? I don't believe it! And sorry sorry, even I can't believe López managing a wine shop for gourmet clients in Tokyo.

russian29 What can I say? The movie did not live up to the promise of its opening scene. It's well-shot and nicely lit, with a few postcard-perfect views of Tokyo, but the story makes no sense, the characters are poorly written, and Sergi Lopez is horribly miscast as the male lead. The ending is a formulaic cop-out.The trailer tries to sell the movie as a sex thriller, which it's most decidedly not. It's a tale of two lost souls in a big city who try to find solace in each other, but fail, for various reasons.Rinko Kikuchi performs well as a quiet fish market worker who moonlights as a paid assassin, but her character remains an enigma throughout the movie, which makes it difficult for the audience to connect or empathize with her. She bares her body more than once in fairly explicit sex scenes - and what a nice body it is - one only wishes the director could give us similar insight into her soul.Sergi Lopez does his usual macho strut with a hint of menace which might have worked in a different movie, but feels utterly out of place in an upscale wine merchant from modern-day Tokyo. He is very unconvincing as Rinko's love interest, and is further hindered by his corpulent, scary hairy physique and significant age difference with his co-star. I could not for the life of me believe in chemistry between the two of them.The omnipresent narrator, an older sound engineer who maintains chaste friendship with Rinko's character and gives the movie its title, is the most sympathetic of all, but he is more of a convenient voice-over device than a fully-fleshed character. Other parts are one-dimensional at best.Recommended only for indiscriminate art-house fans, Japan fetishists, and furries.

harryandsally Simply beautiful. Painstakingly pictured. Full of layers of imagery and sound. The visions and sounds themselves are heart stopping. The strong female lead Ryu, played by Rinko Kikuchi, is stunning and heartbreaking. People overlook how rare it is to have a strong unusual female lead like this in any movie. The drama unfolds delicately, each scene a piece of art that draws you into its suspense and passion. The story is sad but not contrived; the writing is poetry. Writer and director Isabel Coixet's unique artistic view gives fresh color to each scene. Map of the Sounds of Tokyo isn't a cliché about different cultures or living abroad, it is simply a good story filmed like a movie should be.

imbicta I don't particularly like Isabel Coixet's movies, but I can accept that her pulse fits well when screen playing dramatic, intimate novels. However, if you let her free to compose her own script, it's a disaster. This movie is a disaster. It takes borrowed scenes from Wim Wenders, Taylor Hackford (only An Officer and a Gentleman's final scene can compete with this movie's final scene) and Sofia Coppola (Lost in Translation is haunting this movie every second). The dialogs make no sense, the characters make no sense and what's even worse - her apparent goal of paying an homage to Tokyo is completely frustrated: this movie could be set in any other city, you don't even notice the influence of Tokyo.Don't waste your time, as I wasted mine.