Peaceful, beautiful and contemplative, but at times it felt a little too drawn out. It seems like it benefits from being in the mood for that kind of thing going in, and I wasn't fully there.

It's a fine line between meditative and boring, and whether or not it was simply my frame of mind, this film fell into the latter category; I suppose it's allegorical in one way or another, but in the end it failed to stimulate my imagination, which leaves nothing else but repetitive routine and some admirable filmmaking. Respectable, but not my thing.

A masterful wordless cinematic poem about a farming family on a remote Japanese island. The theme of humans being slaves to nature has never been so well-expressed as in the repeated scenes of the Sisyphean task of a man and his wife carrying heavy buckets of water up a steep hill, only to see the water evaporate in the sun as they pour it onto their crops. The music excels in absence of dialogue, which itself never feels like a stunt, merely a further reflection of the weariness of the family.

Extremelly conflicting when considering how much enjoyment can be gained from it, but immensenly impressive achievement in capturing the most arduous and tedious of peasant life. I found it especially interesting how the use of silence is progressed throughout the film, in techniques of the present and past age, and narratively speaking.

You don't need to tell me that carrying buckets of water up a hill is hard work, but the way Shindo somehow viscerally transmits the physical strain of the action to the viewer is amazing, and that's just the beginning.

Perfect cinematography.

The greatest speechless film ever made and a masterpiece of Japanese cinema. Deceptively simple in its depiction of the Sisyphean life of a family living alone on a small island, and yet mesmerizing, heart-rending and thought-provoking. When the face of the twiggy woman toiling uphill as she carries a load of water that looks to weigh enough to snap her bones, finally glides up into the frame in a frontal close-up, it is unforgettably dramatic. The music and photography are superb.

An very symbolic little tale about life. Probably the most beautiful film about survival and human instinct, that you'll ever see.

Simple in construction, but loaded with allegorical possibilities. As I watched the events unfold I pondered the significance of what I was seeing and found my mind going down several different paths. Shindo never makes a big deal about the wordlessness of the narrative; it doesn't ever feel like a novelty, but rather just that no words are necessary. Gorgeous cinematography and a lyrical score. A sometimes difficult film but one that is rewarding both as food for thought and food for the soul.

Every raindrop lands with a thud. Every brief exchange of dialogue oozes significance. Every gesture is painstakingly deliberate. Every image is uniquely breathtaking. It's a film about individuals exposed to and punished by their surroundings, ants carrying double their weight with a stream of boiling water ominously gaining on them.