Japanese Story -Special Edition-

Product Description Sandy Edwards (Toni Collette), an ambitious geologist, suddenly finds herself having to baby-sit Hiromitsu (Gotaro Tsunashima), a habitually silent Japanese businessman. Hoping to strike up a business deal, she agrees to take him on a field trip around Western Australia's remote Pilbara desert. Against the background of the outback, these two diametrically opposed strangers find themselves thrusttogether in a potentially life-or-death situation. As they journey further into the desert, they leave more of what they know about each other and themselves behind. The film oscillates between a cross-cultural journey, an emotional drama, and a haunting love story, while director Sue Brooks catches her audience off guard as she takes us down an unexpected route. Amazon.com The incandescent Australian actress Toni Collette (from The Sixth Sense and Connie and Carla) has one of her biggest, juiciest roles in this delicate character study. She plays a geologist stuck babysitting a Japanese businessman when he visits the Australian outback. Some passable road movie stuff and a slow-developing romance keep the slender premise going for a while, and then a single event--which comes quite out of the blue--changes everything. This event also stops the story dead in its tracks, a problem director Sue Brooks can't find a way around. As with so many Aussie road movies, the desert scenery is spectacular and beautifully photographed. But the main reason to see this mood piece is Toni Collette, who creates a vivid character, by turns rowdy and contemplative, a woman who sees life as a lark and discovers that there may be something more to it. --Robert Horton