Sen Nen no Koi/Genji Monogatari

[John Dougill]

Sen Nen no Koi has hit the video stores and is proving a great hit.  I
managed to get a hold of a copy and had very mixed feelings about it.  While
I enjoyed seeing the Heian court brought to life and found the main lead
(played by Amami Yuki of Takarazuka fame) surprisingly credible - though her
sex certainly became an issue in the love scenes! - the film was
horrendously marred by terrible fantasy episodes which did nothing but look
embarrassing.  Having Seiko Matsuda come swamming by singing a modern style
song did nothing for the film except to make one wonder what on earth the
director had been smoking that day....  at 140 minutes I felt there was the
making of a goodish 105 minute film buried in there somewhere.

Anyway, I'm interested in movie versions of Genji Monogatari in general and
have been searching the internet for reviews of the above film and earlier
ones - all I've come up with so far is an interesting view by someone of a
recent manga version, comparing it with the original book.  Does anyone know
of any articles or reviews comparing the film versions at all??

Thanks
JD
Kyoto