Critics reviews

Shinji Aoyama expertly creates tension out of nothing, building upon his slightly off-kilter set-up with a series of languorous long takes that emphasise the film's disturbing stretches of stillness.

But with his doubt and cynicism cast aside, Aoyama starts at a psychic end of the world and optimistically tries to find a way back to the beginning. The view is incredible.

Shot by Aoyama and producer Takenori Sento on their home island of Kyushu, it has a real feeling for landscape and local people... The beautiful images of ocean, hills and country have a sweep and grandeur that suggest Wim Wenders' road movies or the Monument Valley westerns of John Ford, especially "The Searchers," which Aoyama calls one of "Eureka's" major inspirations.

Eureka takes you into another world, one that at the end of three and a half hours I didn’t want to leave. Some of its seductive power can be attributed to the starkly beautiful cinematography (by Masaki Tamra), some to the delicate balance of pleasure and pain in the scrupulously plotted narrative, but a large part has to do with the three leading actors.