This film has two very redeemable qualities. The fantastic cinematography and the performance of Rose Byrne. The rest of the film however--While The Goddess of 1967 is very pleasing to look at, the actions of the characters are frequently shallow and seemingly random. For example, during the conclusion, it simply was not believable that B.G. would make the choice to put her past aside and choose to pursue a life with J.M. when the chemistry and dialogue between the two characters was so completely mindless.Law failed to demonstrate the growth and change B.G. allegedly must have made during the trip and forces her into a 180 at the end of the film as a quick fix.

Ended up seeing this film(looked like it was shot on HD camera though) on Sundance Channel this morning by coincident, or otherwise I would never see it or known/heard of it for the rest of my life although I see films indiscrimatorily and very frequently.Despite the buzz it received at festivals around the world, it's just too damn hard to find films like this. Plot is rather interesting... a young Japanese guy coming to Auttraria to pick up his car. Indeed this reminds me of Jim Jarmusch's "Mystery Train", which definitely must have inspired the writers. Cinematography... from student cinematographer's point of view, was generic. It looked like just another graduate thesis from every film school around America: Tarkovsky-alikes. Personally I am tired of seeing films like that. Production designer and sound people didn't do their jobs so that the film made me think that it was a student film(, and scene at a noodle stand in Japan... too fake, man!).

I went into the Cinema expecting... I don't know what. I knew it was a road trip picture with a Japanese man and Australian woman... they looked pretty enough on the poster. What I didn't expect was two very real people, scared, vulnerable and eccentric characters on a journey across Australia that becomes luminous and intoxicating. The visual style of the film /cinematography, while gorgeous, was at first distracting... what some people would consider artsy. But as the story unfolds, the visual look of the film matches with the messy, hypnotic storyline and its characters. A beautiful film, one with an unexpected emotional wallop.

If you are driving or contemplating a purchase of a featureless economical car with automatic transmission, or if you have REALLY managed to bear the tedious 3 hours of `The Titanic' without leaving the theatre for a half-an-hour refreshment or for good, THE GODDESS OF 1967 is not a film for you. On the other hand, if you are sick of being able to predict the remaining two and a half hours of the contemporary Hollywood mind-numbing production, Clara Law has a remedy for you! Moreover, if you have ever fallen in love with a car, you would be even more delighted to see that there are people like you out there.The first hint of the cinematic joy that THE GODDESS OF 1967 offers is clear from the first 10 minutes of the film. That is, you realise that behind the whole idea, no matter what it is going to be, there is the AUTHOR, and not the producers, stuntmen, pyrotechnicians, special-effect crew, low-IQ charity … Clara Law is an author with a `handwriting', reminiscent to that of Jim Jarmush or Wim Wenders, but still far from an immitator. Not many authors opt for using a variety of `narative techniques' that film as a media offers. It can be `slippery ground' since the story line can easily be overshadowed by the means of telling it. However, Clara Law bravely takes the challenge, carrying us smoothly through the wonderful world of moving pictures backed by enchanting music.Thematically, THE GODDESS OF 1967 incorporates a number of topics, child abuse being but one of them. In fact, it poses questions before us, through the mouth of the blind girl. Questions seemingly so simple that most of us would not bother asking, yet most of us would not be able to answer them, as well as the characters in the film remain perplexed, stammering nonsense that reverberates mockingly.THE GODDESS OF 1967 is a meeting point of several worlds. Not only the Japanese and the Australian meet there, but also the European, embodied in the relic car symbolising the old virtues and culture refusing to die out. Further, overpopulated Tokyo is contrasted to the vast Australian landscape, both offering an abundance of colour, sounds and even smells. The good and the evil, love and hate, reason and absurdity, trauma and optimism, gloom and humour are interwoven into the plot with straightforward simplicity, which makes the film surprisingly lifelike. All these worlds and plans are uncompromisingly exposed, celebrating beauty but not hiding ugliness. Finally, the film brings all these worlds closer to us, making us richer for knowing one another better.