Sapporo Orinpikku

Sapporo Winter Olympics is directed by Masahiro Shinoda, the director of the classic movies Double Suicide and Silence, among many others. Many of his movies are beautiful visually and play with established structures. So I came into this movie with high expectations--maybe too high. It is not a bad movie by any means. An Olympics documentary exists to document the events and this movie does an adequate job of that. A couple events (the men's cross country and 90 meter ski jump, for instance) get long and interesting examinations. But there are times in the second half of the movie when Shinoda seems bored with the assignment. 7 events are given 90 seconds or less while shots of athletes eating or sightseeing are given more time. And given the location and Shinoda's eye I was surprised there wasn't more scenery, although what little is shown is beautiful. Overall, a mixed bag.