As much as I enjoy Asian cinema, it does happen every now and then that an unimpressive and boring movie surfaces. And "Still the Water" (aka "Futatsume no mado") happened to be one such movie.

The movie is set up for being potentially a great story, with the story revolving around the cycles of life, death and love, as seen from a teenage couple's point of view. And the fact that it takes place on a subtropical paradise Island just bolsters the possibility of it being great.

However, director Naomi Kawase butchered everything that could possibly been a good movie.

I managed to sit through 25 minutes of "Still the Water" before I had to give up out of sheer and complete boredom. Nothing, and I do mean literally nothing had happened in those 25 minutes. And I had no desire whatsoever to continue on watching the story, as it was highly unlikely that the movie would change pace and change character. No, this was just too much of a snoozefest as told by the director.

The acting in the movie wasn't particularly outstanding. Now, I am not saying that the cast didn't perform well, because they did perform adequately, I would say. It is just that no one was outstanding and no one left a memorable impression with their performance. And I am sure that it is to blame on the script and the writers, because the characters lacked personalities, quirks, traits and could essentially have been dolls instead.

There was an abundance of beautiful things to look at in the movie, in the sense of location and shots. But a movie can't sustain itself on visual grace alone.

There is no chance of me returning to finish the rest of the movie, because it just lacked anything even remotely appealing and interesting. And it just goes to prove that not everything in the Asian cinema is a grand and glorious experience.

That movie to contemplate the silence of the scenes while we reflect on the events, beautiful, poetic, intense, you have to pay attention to detail, and then I get lost, the charming Kyoko's family, strong scenes like the goat, hunting, bloody, rising sensuality and purity in nudity, simple and painful death, scenes broken by the sea and its surf, cold photography, blue and gray, passionate...

Disregard the bubble gum chewing burgers with attention deficit disorder whining about this movie being "boring". Sure, it is slow paced. But it's a very profound and beautiful allegory about nature and life. If you cannot appreciate the poetry of this film, I'm afraid your soul has been rotted away or you never had one.