13 thoughts on “As You Like It (2006)

  1. I feel bad for admitting it, but I had a heck of a time telling Romola and Bryce apart, even with different hair colors. It didn’t help that I was only vaguely familiar with the plot (actually through “Never Been Kissed”). It was a very pretty film, but not one I’ve ever felt like rewatching. Sorry, Ken.

  2. This movie looks like a huge misstep, representation wise. The de Boys brothers are also wearing kimono drag.

  3. It’s too bad this is such a dud, because “Shakespeare in Japan” can (and has!) been done in really interesting ways. Kurosawa’s “Throne of Blood” (inspired by “Hamlet”) and “Ran” (inspired by “King Lear”) are both amazing movies, and it would be great to see something more like that. The fashion of the Meiji Era would opens up sooooo many doors you rarely see in western cinema, and it is hard not to feel like we got cheated out of a much more interesting (visually and otherwise) movie with this.

    1. Just one little correction- Throne of Blood was inspired by MacBeth. There are elements of Hamlet in another Kurosawa film – The Bad Sleep Well – set in contemporary times. All worth seeing!!

  4. I can’t comment on this movie because I’ve never seen it. Over the years I’ve thought about giving it a chance and I’ve always been like, “meh…” This post keeps me in the “meh” mindset. To be fair, I’m also “meh” about the play itself, so there’s that. Though I love Kenneth Branagh, David Oyelowo, and Romola Garai. Maybe one day… I’ll just re-watch one of my ALL-TIME FAVORITE movies, Kenneth Branagh’s A Midwinter’s Tale, about a troupe of actors trying to mount a production of Hamlet in small-town England. That film definitely wasn’t a misfire!

      1. Thank you for the memories of Midwinter’s Tale- which is a lovely film that I highly recommend. I hadn’t thought of this in years but I saw it on a first date in 1998 and while that particular relationship never went anywhere as a romance, the man I saw it with became one of my closest friends. He was killed by a drunk driver at ten in the morning on a Sunday in 2015, and I miss him so much.

  5. This is a deeply untidy (even messy) film, but I liked it too much to dismiss the production entirely: this may stem from my crush on Ms. Bryce Dallas Howard, my abiding love of Ms. Romola Garai and/or my delight in seeing Mr Brian Blessed get to play Jedi AND Sith in one film.

    … now I’m disappointed all over again that, to the best of my knowledge, Mr Blessed has never been allowed an excuse to chew scenery in a STAR TREK production opposite Sir Patrick Stewart (Whom I understand to be an old friend of his).

    Anyway, I cannot call this film the Best Possible Version of itself, but I love it a little anyway.

    1. Also, the fact that Ms. Howard and Ms. Garai bear a surprisingly strong resemblance to each other does make me wonder if their fathers – apparently twins – married another set of twins.

  6. Wow. I’m so underwhelmed. And with all his ‘research’ he still didn’t get the kimonos correct. I cannot see a single kimono that looks correct.

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