That was an excellent one.

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Day to day life of a historical figure in Japan. The family was creating great paintings so the animators took special care to create scenes of rare beauty. Not much adventures but lots of thoughts and details make the film very alive. The film leaves our subjects a bit early and the epilogue is brushed over quickly it seems. But we witnessed a passage of time.

For a movie that plays in the 18. century the chosen rock music is the worst and absolutely destroying the complete mood of the whole movie right from the start.I couldn't find any ups in the whole story, only one down after another, nothing cheerful in an harsh world that wasn't shown like one.I can't recommend to watch this one, because you will search for an happy end that never comes up.

American films are a shallow, inane mess. That's why people go see foreign films at art houses. They want to feel good about themselves, and they want to look good to others. Miss Hokusai probably isn't playing in theaters anymore. But if it was, it's a great place to take a date if you want to impress them with your amazing and elitist tastes.I'm not one for typical anime. And of the other anime-ish films that were big in America - Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, etc. - I guess I kind of liked them, but I'm not sure why, other than I'm supposed to like them, and it's good and right to like them. Agree, NPR crowd?Well. Miss Hokusai is a film critic's dream. As soon as I saw it playing at my local college town theatre, I already knew it got 100% from Metacritic and consistent red tomatoes on Rotten Tomatoes. Film critics' tastes are extremely predictable. The more pretentious and experimental a film, the more it merits 5 stars, or 10 stars, or whatever's the highest rating of X publication or website. Why Miss Hokusai gets rave reviews from critics:-It's Japanese anime-ish, and critics and TED lecture fans alike all salivate for those. -It has - gasp! - LBGT in there, and it's not even implied or subdued!!-I don't know what the f--- it's about, but it sure looks good!-Japanese Edo period, about famous artist/painter! Critics love artsiness. -Beautiful Japanese anime-ish characters! Critics appreciate different cultures. -Japan, Japan, oh how they love and adore Japan!-Gorgeous 19th-century Edo cityscape and scenery. Critics adore and appreciate cinematography, history, architecture, and the outdoors - a plus if it's a different culture!-And what is the film about again? I don't care, it seems experimental and cool, so I'll upvote it!Anyway, I'm guilty of thinking like critics, so I was pretty impressed with the film, and I enjoyed it. I'd hate to say this, but it really is way better than typical American films. Art-house elitism!

The art, as well as the way the making of art is portrayed in the film is great; however, there is no real story arc or character development to speak of. Perhaps not much is known about the daughter of Hokusai, but even so, historical fiction is fiction for a reason. Though the film is narrated by the daughter, it is not about her at all, which is misleading (title, trailer all suggest the film will be about her). Her character does not develop much, though there is ample room for it to develop. Just when she may go beyond her immature, mean self, beyond her father's shadow, the film ends with a few narrated summary lines conveying what happens in the next 30 years without actually showing it. The film seems to focus on the period in which the blind daughter of the famous painter (the narrator's sister) is young, falls sick, and dies. It is not clear how and why Hokusai is separated from his wife, why his eldest daughter draws and paints with him (though she resents him plenty)... None of the romantic interests develop during the film, yet the summary in the end tells us she married once! It is hard to imagine her marrying, so this would be a great story, but it is not the subject of the film. At one point, we learn that she has a passion for fire, but have no idea how, if at all, this affects her paintings, her art...All in all, the art is great, especially the parts where painting and drawing itself is discussed. But the story is severely lacking and aimless.