40
The New York Times by A.O. Scott
Plays like a nutty psychological mystery.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
90
New Times (L.A.) by Andy Klein
While Imamura films generally have their droll moments, this is the most blatantly comic work he's done since the '80s -- richly entertaining and suggestive of any number of metaphorical readings.
75
San Francisco Chronicle by Edward Guthmann
One never knows where "Warm Water" is going and even though the film's objective feels a little fuzzy even at the end a parable on female sexuality? an ode to liberty? there's such a joy in the telling that it doesn't matter terribly.
80
Imamura has said that Warm Water Under a Red Bridge is a poem to the enduring strengths of women. It may also be the best sex comedy about environmental pollution ever made.
50
New York Daily News by Jami Bernard
Maintains a light, dainty tone despite the heavy-handed metaphor, but in crossing the Pacific to the U.S., it is bound to leave most viewers dry.
60
The film may be lighter in tone than Imamura's more recent work, but it still has a number of serious things to say about life in contemporary Japan.
75
A rather luminous movie on the power of love.
75
Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert
This story is unthinkable in a Hollywood movie, but there is something about the matter-of-fact way Saeko explains her problem, and the surprised but not stunned way that Yosuke hears her, that takes the edge off.
70
Funny and endearing.
63
There's not enough here to justify the almost two hours.