A Scene at the Sea

A U-turn in the blood-spattered career of actor-director Takeshi Kitano, still fondly remembered as the sentimental sadist Sergeant Hara in Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence. This time he stays behind the camera and does without his usual recourse to violence. A boy working on a garbage truck in a seaside town (we realise only gradually that he and his girlfriend are profoundly deaf) finds a broken surf-board, tries to repair it, and teaches himself to surf. That's pretty much the whole plot, but it encompasses a truly rapturous love story, a lot of humour, and some piercing truths about human nature. It's also superbly acted, and has the best-judged editing since Bresson's last movie.