A manga adaptation that was ruined by the manga.
I was super excited about this movie because of the cast -- our #BestCP from I Want to Eat Your Pancreas (Kitamura Takumi and Hamabe Minami), plus Akaso Eiji (will admit that I don't know the other female lead).However as the story got on I realized it was so full of typical shoujo manga/drama tropes that I would like jokingly name the most "tropey" plot development possibility and it would friggin' come true. Like it became a hilarious meme that I was predicting the characters' next line or the next camera scene. And the story did get really WTF as it went on...
However the directing is AMAZING. The way the story slowly unfolded and we started to see hints of what each character was thinking based on subtle facial expression hints, or hints in what they said, or random zoom ins of the camera... I really liked the whole process of trying to guess what would happen next. I looked up the director and found he was the same one who did Tomorrow I will Date with Yesterday's You, as well as Girl in the Sunny Place. I loved *both* movies when they came out, and I can see how they were done by the same director -- all movies featured a lot of foreshadowing and shocking (but predictable if you were tracking earlier scenes) plot twists.
Official theme song is by Higedan. I know the song from my Spotify playlist because I love their work for Confidenceman JP. The other BGM were also very nicely chosen and fit the theme. I would totes put the whole OST on repeat.
TL;DR: Watch it not for the ridiculous plot, but for the way the story is told to you. And extra points if you like the actors/actresses, because they really get to show off their skills in this one.
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This review may contain spoilers
Love Me? Love Me not...
Honestly, as this movie is based on Sakisaka Io's work, i really anticipate this one (and also Eiji san as main cast too) Firstly, i thought this one would be giving same vibe like Ao Haru Ride ans Strobe Edge but it didn't turned out like them. Yes the story is typical of romance japan's coming-of-age story, however the pace is really slow. I won't say that is bad thing but if you hate slowburn story, then this movie won't be your cup of tea.The change of Rio and Akari's feeling are little bit off since it feels rushed cause of duration. The actors and actress did really well to convey their feelings and i really love how their expression say it all in some of scene. The cinematography is also done beautifully. It would be better if this movie is adapted as dorama instead.
Youth movie that talks about love and dream. A clinche one with slow burn vibe..
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This review may contain spoilers
wonderful slice-of-life about self-development
spoiler-free general thoughts:I had such high hopes for this movie after seeing the trailer and cast, and it did not disappoint. The story is quite "uneventful" in the sense that there is not a lot of big dramatic moments, but leans more towards slice-of-life. The pacing is really nice tho. The trailer itself it quite deceiving, as I expected romance to be the main point, but the focus is more on the development of the four main characters. With the help of eachother, they learn about their "bad" traits and step outside their comfort zones to make a change to it. The cast displays their characters greatly as well and I love how the different characters just meshes with each other. Overall, a really enjoyable movie!
SPOILERS AHEAD FROM THIS POINT:
SPOILERS
Story:
I'm glad they did not try to the Akari-Rio situation got "resolved" relatively quickly and did not become the main focus of this movie. They did a great job at highlighting each characters' flaw and the background what led to those flaws. It has so many wonderful scenes like: Akari-mom late night talk, Kazu-brother scenes, Akari-Yuna push etc. Every scene has its purpose, no fillers. I wish we could have seen a bit more Rio-Yuna scenes tho.
Characters:
Let's talk about characters, as their chemistry is the highlight of this movie!
// Yuna: "Yuna is a really good girl": i could not have said it better, Akari! Only has good intentions, but severally lacks confidence. Despite that, she still is a wonderful friend to Akari and is not afraid to speak up when it matters the most. I love how Rio made her into the best version of herself. I loved her glow-up.
// Rio: The guy who tells other to accept rejections, so you can close a chapter, but unknowingly was doing it to himself. Yuna's scolding really woke him up. Glad he was finally able to move on.
// Kazu: Your typical character who is selfless with little self-respect. On the surface he is fine with how things are going, but deep inside he knows it is not alright. Finally with the help of Akari (and his brother) he realized he needs to stand up to his feelings and dreams he want to pursue!
// Akari: Minami did a stellar job on her acting. The self-labelled "not good girl", but she is not far off from Yuna. Another selfless character that will sacrifice everything to keep her family together, without telling anyone else. I love ow encouraging she is to her friends!
Overall, this is such a solid romance/friendship/youth movie with incredible cast and story-writing. The characters are all great with obvious flaws, but in the end they work it out together. 9/10, would recommend and watch again.
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Not Good Enough
Japanese Drama " Love Me, Love Me Not " is a film based on the popular manga series.The story starts out quite smoothly, but soon it is evident that the creators were trying to squize into a two hour film a whole manga series. And that was the film's crucial fault. The pace, due to that, got messy, and the relationships were progressing in an unconvincing rate.
On the other hand, the performances were all great by all the actors and the actresses of the cast. The couples had chemistry as well, which aided a the movie a bit.
So, overall, two out of ten.
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