This is a frustrating film to review, because I really wanted this to be good. The premise is strong, and the first half of the film is genuninely quite good, if somewhat standard in its characters and developments. However, by the film's climax, elements added to extend the original narrative beyond the original short story fail to fully satisfy the elements introduced early on, and the film feels unfinished despite the elements for a full narrative existing within the base story and aspects introduced by the film's screenplay.

While many ideas are presented from the premise through the course of its runtime, "Josee, the Tiger, and the Fish" fails to adequately develop any of them. Individual components could have been focused on and refined, notably Kumiko/Josee's question of self-reliance and Tsuneo's role in that, but these pieces are unfortunately lost as the narrative turns to cliche and questionable developments to create tension during the second half of the film. It's very obvious that this was a short story's worth of material stretched beyond its limits; the sections grafted in the screenplay by Kuwamura Sayaka to extend its length are immediately obvious, wearing thin what is honestly a solid relationship between a man looking to see the world and a woman who is trapped by the limits of her body.

The way specifically chosen to resolve the conflict of Tsuneo and Josee/Kumiko’s wildly different views of the world is especially disappointing, and while I could have dealt with cliche, the idea that two people who have experienced different lives can’t come to understand each other save through a shared (temporary) disability is where I truly turned on this film. From this point, and Tsuneo's angst throughout his hospitalization existing out of line with his character prior to this point, the narrative wanders in circles to it's Christmas conclusion. Rather than this questionable second half, I would have liked to have heard more of Josee's family, and the events that led her grandmother to decide that locking her away was the best option to keep her safe. Ultimately, this film could have benefitted from a narrowed cast that is more thoroughly developed.

What this film lacks in actual substance to justify it's hour and a half runtime, visually it is still beautiful. Everyday spaces from the Osaka area are faithfully rendered by director Kotaro Tamura, and that's where I found the majority of entertainment. This could have elevated the film if the elements mentioned above had not been handled so haphazardly. However, these strengths are ultimately pulled down by this fundamental lack of direction story-wise, and serve only as a temporary distraction from narrative stumbles.

If you're looking for a standard romance and don't mind a film that uses flash to cover for a lack substance, then Josee is serviceable. For all others, I can't really recommend it.