What could be worse than being confined for days at a time as a cruise ship passenger along with four thousand others? Answer: Being a staff member servicing these passengers! And even worse than that, being the principal go-to staff member for all less-than-happy passengers and other paying trouble makers. This is the underlying plot here with a delightful off-the-wall budding romance injected into the mix. Great light-weight escapist fare! Familiar actors deliver over-the-top performances (as is expected in a movie of this genre) with female lead Aoi Miyazaki being a standout as a romantic lead - she steals just about every scene she is in! Direction and editing suffer from an over abundance of obviously staged scenes. Special effects, especially animation, are theater-movie quality level. Cinematography and lighting as well as sound field are fine. Music is a bit on the intrusive side. Subtitles struggle (sometimes successfully) with rapid-fire dialog - may be best to turn them off, if possible. Well worth rewatching. Viewed on Netflix. WILLIAM FLANIGAN.
Review of In Love and Deep Water
