There are more thankless tasks than taking on a script left unfilmed by a famous dead director, but those jobs are usually left to gaffers and key grips. If such a project turns out well, everyone credits the past master. If it turns out poorly, only the living director takes the blame. And if it turns out brilliant but difficult, like A.I., no one gets spared. So pity poor Kei Kumai, a Japanese director esteemed for his social-issue dramas. He undoubtedly set out to pay tribute to Akira Kurosawa by filming The Sea Is Watching, a project Kurosawa left unrealized but saw through far enough to make some conceptual drawings. Maybe that's why the film feels so sketchy. Based on a pair of stories by Shugoro Yamamoto, whom Kurosawa had adapted several times in the past, The Sea Is Watching takes place late in the Edo period, but makes only passing reference to the world outside its brothel setting. There, prostitutes take turns reciting romantic stories when not entertaining travelers who pass through their seaside town. They all have hearts of gold, but the 24-karat one belongs to sweet Nagiko Tono, whose bad habit of falling for her customers gets her in trouble in the opening segment, when she makes some assumptions about the intentions of a young samurai. Though the episodic, low-key action bears a resemblance to Kurosawa's Madadayo–his little-seen, underrated final film–neither the characters nor the plot lend it even a hint of dynamism. Tono pines. Her coworkers pine with her. Eventually, a down-on-his-luck hero (Masatoshi Nagase) and the sea itself come into play, but not soon enough to make a difference. For Kurosawa, this would have been a rare excursion into the world of womanhood and romance, so maybe his script botched the job, but it's hard to believe he wouldn't have found better ways to underscore the action than cutting away to the reactions of a none-too-expressive housecat. Although, to be fair, the cat does steal its every scene.