My Strawberry Film (2024)

slice of life with three friends and a newcomer

Overall: a more realistic/angsty vibe. Think of this as a slice of life/coming of age rather than a BL series (because it is not a BL series, see my spoiler comment). 8 episodes about 25 minutes each. Aired on GagaOOLala.

Content Warning: manipulation

What I Liked
- a few central characters
- glad the guy was interrupted as the other guy was sleeping
- mystery element
- production value (color scheme in particular)

Room For Improvement
- was disappointed because a character knew it was no use but had really high expectations and then had a public breakdown when things went exactly as they knew it would go
- a bit too slow without the mutual tension needed to sustain it
- where did they get that key from, random ropes hanging with a sign which anyone can ignore
- there were opportunities for some clever plot twists but there was nothing
- should not have had this as (especially the last) in the BL time slot

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Have you really watched it to judged it not BL/GL ???

The GL : Mizuki, Murasaki Minami's mother, was in love with her best friend, now teacher Takahashi Kaoru (now married Matsuoka Kaoru). Murasaki Minami came to the school after the video of her mother was posted online by the group who found the original video. She first thought her mother's first love would have been a man, but, it wasn't. She find in herself many similarities with her mother. She showed her interest in Chika. She care a lot for her in a very short time whitch is the first clue, but knows about Chika's interest in Ryo yet not the full story. Chika on the other hand doesn't share the same feeling.

The BL : That is what really upset me the most about some comments. So I will make it clearer to some! Introvert Ichikawa Ryo has been in love for a long time with his classmate extrovert Toyama Hikaru. However, because of the strict Japanese society they live in about gays, he keep his feelings for himself not to bother Hikaru. During the 6 first episodes, Ryo support Hikaru's attraction to Minami. He keep his distance while watching or afar. He tries to let go of him in that way. Everything became more complicated after Chika saw him watching Hikaru sleep. But even knowing that Ryo's heart was taken, she later confess thinking Ryo was letting go of Hikaru during the double "date". But he was only there to show some "support" to his friend and rejected her. After talking to Minami, he thought that he should have tried harder to move on by going out with Chika. She wasn't happy when he asked her and told him that she couldn't be the second place in his heart. On the other hand, Minami rejected Hikaru, telling him she only saw him as a friend. He first thought she was attracted to Ryo, but confirmed she wasn't. His words about how he sees Ryo clearly showed his interest in him. "If I was a girl" clearly showed he wasn't insensitive to Ryo's charm. The story started to become clearer when they met in the playground he asked Ryo if he has feelings for him. Ryo took some time to answer and Hikaru's heart stopped. Ryo just said he likes him.... as a friend, when he saw the fear on Hikaru's eyes. But episode 7 explained us why. Hikaru was attracted by Ryo for a long time. He didn't really understand this feeling, and never saw it as love. But he likes the closeness they share. When he saw Mizuki's video, he was captivated by the look she had looking at the camera. She was clearly in love with the person holding it. It's what attracted him to Minami. He projected her mother's look into her, and wanted to be looked at like that. But Minami never did. The only person who does is Ryo, but he doesn't know Ryo's feelings towards him and that's why he's so confuse. After Minami rejected him and learned the truth about her mother's first love, he realised that the look Mizuki had was for a person of the same sex. But 25 years ago, the view on LGBT was even worse than today, and both woman had to get married with a man and have children, even if they loved each other. At the end of episode 8, Hikaru tells his struggles to Ryo because he realised that Ryo was looking at him the same way Mizuki looked at Kaoru. The confession of love was settle but clear, and they ended up holding each other's hand.

The cinematography was amazing and the way it was written was clearly done by an artist. No kisses, like she did in Zenra Meshi last year (2023) and everything is very settle, like many Japanese BL. April 19, 2024 we'll see what she does with "25 Ji, Akasaka de".

This drama is more cinematographic than other BL. It reminds me of "His" (part 1 in 2019 especially, when they're young) or a movie like "Taiikukan Baby" or "Asymmetry" (Both from 16 years ago in 2008). We can clearly see that it was done by someone who wanted to express feeling through words and pictures instead of skinship. Something that has always been the most difficult thing to do for anyone, gay or straight. Especially deep feelings.

So, my wander is why people said it's not BL and only a one way love for everyone?
If you don"t understand the story, may I suggest you watch it in one go WITHOUT skipping what you would consider "boring scenes". Every words are important !!!

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BL, GL and internalized homophobia: Characters and different points of view on love about to collide

'My Strawberry Film' is a Japanese youth romantic crowd drama about the intertwined feelings of four high school students with very different personalities and views on love, attracted by a mysterious movie.
This is a coming-of-age drama about four teenagers, ages 17 or so, realistically observing moments in their lives, moments that all of us could have experienced or will experience at one point or another.
The drama, likewise, covers serious and mature themes while presenting them in a comedic and dramatic manner.
Screenwriters Kobayashi Keiichi and Takahashi Natsuki, and director Takeda Karin, manage to mix friendship, love and longing, while complex feelings cross the hearts of the characters.
Also appearing as director and screenwriter is Ryo Kawasaki, a proven master of BL, who was the director of the drama 'Minato Shoji Coin Laundry 2' and writer of the script for 'Zenra Meshi', both from 2023.
The music of Yuya Mori and the opening themes "Flashback Memories", by Kubota Kai, and "Cropping", by Quw, for the closing, converge to delight the audience with the story in which four high school students, each one with their own feelings, they face heartbreaking emotions as they pursue a mystery.

PLOT

In their second year of high school, Ryo Ichikawa (Ryusei Fukada), Hikaru Toyama (Rei Yabana) and Chika Nakamura (Mizuki Yoshida), live a seemingly peaceful school life while harboring hidden emotions.
One day, Hikaru and Chika are penalized for being late to class. To fulfill the punishment imposed, they must clean an old warehouse behind the gym. Faced with old and used items stored in the shed, Chika comes up with the idea that she could sell the valuables on an auction site. Immersed in his search, he finds an 8 mm film kept in a small metal box. As they pass the tape through the projector, the image of a dazzling girl appears before them. Hikaru is captivated by the beauty of the young girl (Ririka Tanabe) that could be seen even through the rough particles.
Perplexed and fascinated, Hikari declares to his best friend Ryo: "I want to meet the girl from the movie." Isn't he dancing and laughing on the same rooftop of the school where they go in their free time? Doesn't the film show images of an old building known to them? So, the young woman has to be a former student of the school. Didn't you also wear the same uniform as theirs? From this moment on, they will show her face to the former teachers to see if any of them recognize her.
If the girl must have been known by the most senior teachers, several were even students at the school decades ago and, therefore, they must know all the young people who passed through their classrooms, why does no one recognize her? What is the mystery surrounding the young woman? Why do they seem to prefer to remain silent and not identify the girl and tell them where to find her or tell them what happened to her?
Together with Hikaru, Ryo and Chika begin to search for clues about the enigmatic creature reflected in an 8 mm film. Are your feelings for that special person love, friendship or respect? is the question that floats in the air.
The very next day a transfer student arrives at school. The three friends will be surprised when Minami Murasaki appears before them, a young woman who looked exactly like the girl in the movie.
The feelings of four people that are intertwined with the mysteries hidden in the film are represented in this youth group drama: Hikaru chases the shadow of the mysterious girl, Ryo worries about Hikaru and Chika has feelings for Ryo, while Minami's gaze seems pass by.
Finally, in an unexpected turn of events, the series also drifts towards Girl Love (GL) and internalized homophobia, since the girl in the video is actually Minami's mother, who was filmed by the student she loved. and this, despite loving her, could not reciprocate.

OF CHARACTERS AND STARS

This Fuji Television drama, with an original script, shows people with feelings that cannot be named in their hearts: they cry, fight, laugh and desperately try to seize the moment that is now.
Quattro, who plays Ryo Ichikawa, perfectly captures his role as a boy who is not good at interacting with people, is seen as cool by those around him and is popular among young girls for his beautiful appearance, but he does not like to stand out and does not show no interest in girls. His passion is making music.
His time in 'Kenisasu Life' (Nippon Television) and 'Dragon Zakura' (TBS) confirms the constant evolution of this popular actor, now in the role of giving life to a high school student in full struggle with many emotions such as love and friendship. The nostalgic and sensitive, but also romantic, audience can identify perfectly with the character.
Rei Yabana, the member of '7MEN Samurai', shines in his first leading role, playing Hikaru Onada, a beloved and energetic boy who is sometimes insensitive, with great communication skills and easy to get carried away, but also fickle when not having anything that excites him and without love experience.
Ductile playing a young man in his phase of discovering and describing the sweet and bittersweet youth that only a high school student can experience, his characterization makes the viewer live or relive, as the case may be, that "youth" as if he had lived it with previously or somewhere. I don't doubt that it will awaken memories and emotions that the audience may have had.
Who we saw in 'Nare no Hate no Bokura', on TV Tokyo, confirms with his performance that he is an artist who not only has the talent to play a wide range of instruments, such as the guitar.
For his part, Yoshida Mizuki manages to convince the most demanding viewer in his role as Chika Nakamura, a young member of the badminton club with an active personality and knowledge of ancient tools. As a bright girl who cares deeply about her friends and sometimes has trouble expressing her true feelings, she makes the audience identify with the character.
Yoshida Mizuki, who has demonstrated her talent by starring in the films 'Atsui Chest Sawagi' and 'Kamuy no Uta', as well as her role in the Netflix series 'Alice in the Country', penetrates with conviction into the skin of an objectively girl cute but lacks self-confidence and has secret feelings for Ryo.
Ririka Tanabe, who like Mizuki Yoshida is an exclusive model for "Seventeen" and has also appeared in popular works such as the drama 'The Best Teacher: 1 Year Later, I Was Treated by a Student', shows great sensitivity when characterizing a devilish girl who has her own vision of the world and her own rhythm, and never tires of unconsciously manipulating everyone around her.
As Minami Murasaki, she shows her artistic skills as a transfer student who looks exactly like the beautiful girl in the film and seeks to unravel her late mother's past.
With her role in 'My Strawberry Film', Mitsuki Yoshida shows her extensive stage skills, as she did when starring in 'Alice in the Country' (Netflix), 'Dragon Zakura' (TBS) and the play 'Three Thousand Moles' Gather'.

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Eh

*The main leads do not end up together but it is not sad either.*
Ah yes I love the smell of unrequited love in the morning! I absolutely love JBLs and their use of blue hues. I was sucked in the beginning so fast because of the directors and screenwriters were apart of some of my favorite dramas being eternal yesterday and my personal weatherman, Jack o’frost but apparently I jumped the gun*insert crying emoji*.

Within the show we have multiple one sided crushes and unrequited loves *insert crying emoji.”
The cinematography is beautiful and OST is super catchy and pleasing to the ear HOWEVER, many times I fear I kept calling to BL because it felt like she wasn’t in the room with us*insert crying emoji*. Felt a little too hetero for my liking at some point and not even a feeling of bromance was to be found.
The storyline is so nonsensical until the last episode and by then I didn’t even want or feel the need to finish it tbh. I was disappointed with this drama unfortunately but we can’t win them all lol.

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Its a chill watch

I am in the minority of the people that actually liked this show. It is a chill thing to watch, you can watch this when you have literally nothing else to do and is bored. First of all this is NOT A BL. This is an lgbt series at best. So if you are watching this series with the expectations for the boys to kiss, don't. But still it was a nice watch. I like the plot. This is more of a friendship/highschool story. Teenagers like other teenagers and get rejected and heart broken, tale as old as time. Nothing new. and the plot twist wasn't really a plot twist. I expected that from the very beginning. And was actually surprised why no one though of it. I like how in the last episode it tied it up all in a nice bow. The actors did pretty well. The ost was nice. Overall, it is good. But still I am gonna give this a 7/10 cause of the false advertisement. Either watch it or don't watch it, you don't lose/gain anything anyways.

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NOT a BL or GL but definitely an LGBT drama with interesting plot

This drama shows interesting relationship dynamics and realistic friendship, with one-sided love from each friend in the group. The drama shows how romantic feelings between straight and LGBT friends would realistically end as these friends are attracted to someone who could not love them romantically back (as they are not the gender that they are attracted to).

I prefer good writing over being fed with meaningless/cliche romance. Taiwan and Japan have made some of the most out-of-the-box LGBT dramas out there, and this is one for me. I don't mind that it is unrequited love; it is one of the few dramas that actually shows a love complex where FL1 likes ML1, who likes ML2, who likes FL2, who cares for FL1 as friends, and not another love corner where FL1 and FL2 like ML1 while ML1 and ML2 like FL1.

It is definitely worth watching again for me because, even though it is not a happy ending, it still shows the love every character has for each other, whether it is romantically or as friends. And throughout the slow pacing, you can see that the characters struggle to reconcile their feelings between love and fear of losing a precious friendship. In fact, I am glad that they didn't make a character suddenly bi-curious or outright re-identify as bi just for a happy ending for one couple.

Overall, I would recommend watching the drama and judging it yourself rather than passing it by because of the rating.

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A Teenage Romance full of Angst & Yearning

The world is a diverse place full of myriad emotions, and nowhere is this more evident than in the Japanese drama Strawberry Film.

Old film footage, nostalgic glimpses into the past, and growing friendships full of hidden desires lay the framework for a beautiful coming-of-age story that explores love in all its forms while accepting that love isn’t bound by societal rules. Instead, it belongs solely to the heart, to the person who holds it—to the joy love brings them and to the pain love causes.

From the opening scenes, Strawberry Film captivates with its evocative cinematography, transporting viewers into a world where individual emotions take center stage. Led by a talented cast including Fukada Ryusei (Ryo), Yabana Rei (Hikaru), Yoshida Mizuki (Chika), and Tanabe Ririka (Minami), the series seamlessly weaves together past and present, inviting audiences on a journey of self-discovery and personal growth.

Read the complete article here-

https://the-bl-xpress.com/2024/04/10/my-strawberry-film-series-review-ep-3-to-8/

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If you suffer with sleep plz consider watching this at night.

I knew it was a wrap up at the 5 ep but I kept going and so I kept dying I was hoping for some romance but I got nothing.

The first ep had my interested but the more ep I watch the more I realize this is absolute trash.

Okay why I hate it slow, no romance, just characters pissing me off and the writer who lied. and honest nothing was fun interesting just “finding the girl who’s in the tape”

In dramalist it said LGBTQ, BL yk and more I watch it was like bitch where. Instead of BL they could of put slice of life friendship and misery and also mystery.

Will I be watching this again, hell no - Am I mad, YES - Was I stressing, YES

I hope they can do better because this done pissed me off if they were honest and say bitches y’all getting no romance I would been like cool imma drop it and I would save 23-24 mins of my life. For the people who dropped it earlier I wish you best and I’m so glad you made to outta there and we had to suffer Ovall chika was the realist character you can fight me but I say she is. She was the one keeping me up ty. And Ryo I feel real bad for you even after holding hikaru hand y'all still didn’t get together. Next time ion gon fall for this bs again.

TOODLES.!!

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Not a bl series

That's not a bl series, in the series the main characters looks like they were pressured by the society about who they should love
actors are good but the ending ruined the flow of the series. if you are a bl fan then don't expect it to be that it's going to end like with bl couple.
It's just another japanese drama nothing special, to me it's a waste of time i thought there is going to be something new but NO another boring series.
That's not a bl series, in the series the main characters looks like they were pressured by the society about who they should love
actors are good but the ending ruined the flow of the series. if you are a bl fan then don't expect it to be that it's going to end like with bl couple.
It's just another japanese drama nothing special, to me it's a waste of time i thought there is going to be something new but NO another boring series.

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