After the relative successes of his first two films, both
violent yakuza dramas, Takeshi Kitano, ever unpredictable, made A Scene at the Sea, a quiet romantic
drama about a deaf garbage man who becomes obsessed with surfing after finding
a broken board - emblazoned with the slogan "sink or swim" - at work.
He, Shigeru, fixes it, and he and his (also deaf) girlfriend, Takako, head to
the beach, where his enthusiastic amateurism is ridiculed by the other surfers
and a couple of old classmates.
Kitano's calm, languid visual style is punctuated by
brief moments of expression, usually contained within probing close-ups. In A Scene at the Sea, Kitano cuts away
from a long, static take of a beach filled with surfers to observe Takako
quietly folding her boyfriend's clothes, while later, the two share smiles, his
coy, hers beaming, as they walk towards the beach holding either end of a
surfboard. These small, loving details make the derision he suffers seem so meaningless,
but what is it that makes him so happy: the love of his girlfriend, or his love
for surfing? As the film ends, Kitano gives us a montage of Takako's memories
as she looks back over the relationship. There's a surfer in every
one.