Beautiful movie, in a very Japanese way (with mono no aware and wabi-sabi aesthetics). Very sweet couple. Fantastic soundtrack by Joe Hisaishi, as always.

It's kind of like a movie with everything turned all the way down. I'm not sure if that's good or not.

Great

It has a tranquil poetry to it, mixed with very light comedy that makes it like a Tati film. And yes, I cared for the main characters. And the ambiguously tragic ending is moving. But a lot of it is really boring. I understand it's about self-discovery through surfing, but there is WAY too much surfing in this movie, and way too much sitting on the beach. Not quite deep enough for a character study, not quite engaging enough for a meditative piece. Hisaishi's tinkly score gets annoying, too.