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I Was a Simple Man
Directed by
Christopher Makoto Yogi
2021
1h 40m
Drama
6.0
89%
78%
6.1
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A family in Hawai'i faces the imminent death of their eldest as the ghosts of the past haunt the countryside.
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Where to Watch I Was a Simple Man
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Cast of I Was a Simple Man
Steve Iwamoto
Masao Matsuyoshi
Constance Wu
Grace
Tim Chiou
Adult Masao
Kanoa Goo
Gavin
Chanel Akiko Hirai
Kati
Hau'oli Carr
Ashley
Nelson Lee
Mark
Kyle Kosaki
Young Masao
Boonyanudh Jiyarom
Young Grace
Alexa Bodden
Young Kati
Alex Zhang Hungtai
Jimmie / Original Music Composer
Akiko Masuda
Akiko
Angelica Quinn
Doctor
Eli Burbage
Lance
Kylan Nieh
Bar Guy
Nale Donlin
Bar Patron (uncredited)
Christopher Makoto Yogi
Director / Screenplay / Producer
Sarah S. Kim
Producer
Roy Tjioe
Executive Producer
Yamato Cibulka
Producer
I Was a Simple Man Ratings & Reviews
The UnderSCENE
Nuha Hassan
I Was A Simple Man is layered and reveals a lot more as the movie progresses, and there is so much to unpack.
Filmmaker Magazine
Vadim Rizov
Two features in, Yogi's still expanding his emotional and stylistic range for something that's more often hypnotic than clumsy.
Los Angeles Times
Michael Rechtshaffen
A stirring, melancholic portrait of an ailing, elderly patriarch grappling with his encroaching mortality.
Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews
Dennis Schwartz
Endearing arthouse ghost story.
RogerEbert.com
Roxana Hadadi
A 100-minute spell of beauty and melancholy, intimate and grand in equal measure.
Slant Magazine
Wes Greene
The film's quietly uncanny narrative wondrously depicts not only a dying man's reflection on his life, but also the very nature of Hawaii itself.
In Review Online
Nicholas Yap
The result is a wildly contradictory affair whose unresolved ideas find as little purchase as it sojourns across time.
Slashfilm
Hoai-Tran Bui
Christopher Makoto Yogi's elegiac family drama crafts a haunting tapestry of a man's life, interwoven with Hawaii's own post-colonial landscape.
Critic's Notebook
Martin Tsai
The natural milieu of Oahu establishes the contemplative mood, but what sets the film apart is its depiction of disability, as Masao's life progresses inward while the rest of the world moves along without him.
Deadscreen
Murjani Rawls
"I Was A Simple Man" connects both as a homage to Hawaii and cycling through a man's life as he makes peace with certain death.
Moveable Fest
Stephen Saito
Stirring.
The New Yorker
Richard Brody
Yogi creates a cinema that is simultaneously meticulously physical and wildly metaphysical, offering passionate dramatic correlates and symbols for the unrepresentable-for the subjective experience of death.
Film Threat
Bradley Gibson
I Was a Simple Man, for viewers who can connect, is a satisfying look at both the history of a man and beautiful, under-appreciated land.
Battleship Pretension
David Bax
...uniquely metaphysical, devastating and beautiful.
Deadline Hollywood Daily
Todd McCarthy
The film is defined by its discipline and a style that might be called lushly austere. This is refined, specialist cinema that will be warmly embraced by aesthetes.
RogerEbert.com
Brian Tallerico
There's poetry here, but there are also long sections that feel hollow.
The Movie Cricket
Sean P. Means
Yogi lets us appreciate the beauty of Hawai'i and the literally haunted mood it casts over Masao's final days and his eventual peace.
IndieWire
David Ehrlich
"I Was a Simple Man" seamlessly glides into a higher gear as it sieves back through time and starts introducing younger versions of its character into the movie like the rounds of a song.
The Hollywood Reporter
David Rooney
Christopher Makato Yogi's second feature is a gentle reflection on memory and death...
Variety
Guy Lodge
There's something here of Naomi Kawase's intimate environmental attunement and even, in stray flashes, Terrence Malick's cosmic grandeur.
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