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Poison Berry in My Brain japanese movie review
Completed
Poison Berry in My Brain
1 people found this review helpful
by Amy Leigh
Feb 14, 2021
Completed
Overall 5.5
Story 6.5
Acting/Cast 8.0
Music 8.0
Rewatch Value 1.0

Some interesting moments, but mostly forgettable

This is my first review to write here on MDL, but I had to write on as I just finished this movie and had looked forward to it after seeing the very high ratings it had received from other fans.

First off, let me just say that overall I felt like this movie was pretty pointless. It never made itself quite clear with a genre- it wasn't quite a romance, not quite a comedy, not quite slice of life, etc. As such, it felt a bit confusing since it couldn't seem it make up its mind as to what it was and didn't give viewers a clear emotion.

Second, while the male lead and a couple of the supporting characters did a good job acting with the material they were given, others left much to be desired. That's why I only gave an 8 for acting- some were good, but others were just not up to par. One of the supporting characters was unbelievably unlikeable and delivered 99% of her lines at a full blown yell. While it was supposed to go along with her character's personality, there are more ways to express anger and emotion that screaming at the top of your lungs. As such, it was irritating and annoying to hear so much screaming and noise throughout so much of the movie.

In addition, the female lead left some to be desired as well. Part of this was the acting but some of it was due to the story as well. I never felt connected to her as a viewer- there is not much background story ever given and viewers just kind of jump right into her life and the love story with absolutely no set up. (Literally the opening scene is the couple meeting) So therefore you get no time to know the FL and connect with her- so in essence you don't start rooting for her or cheering for her yet before she even meets this guy. As such, you don't really feel involved in their story or invested in it either.

The female lead didn't show a wide range of emotions either, which I feel like also detracted from the storyline which was actually quite basic and simple... not to mention short. Because so much of the film focuses on the people in her mind (who represent her inner thoughts) arguing, deciding what she should do, etc it feels like only half the film is actually about the couple and half is about the people in her brain. So is that enough time to really flesh out their love story? Not to me it wasn't.

(MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD)

In addition, I couldn't ever really care for the female lead either overall. Her insecurities (as represented in the people in her mind) were what caused the majority of her relationship issues. Yet, the movie acts like the male lead was actually the bad guy (he certainly did have some bad points of course, but she would overreact, lie, run away, etc all due to her insecurities and immaturity).

By the time you get to the end, you can tell clearly how it will end and the ending is so obvious and expected that I was highly disappointed and felt like I had pretty much wasted 2 hours of my time. The ending was no better than a some motivational Instagram account (you will understand once you watch it).

I gave the music an 8 because nothing stuck out as bad and the only time I did notice it was when it was bit too loud in the background over their voices. But overall, the music choices were decent. So nothing horrible there to take away from that rating.

If you like Yuki Furukawa, then I would recommend you watch this movie just once as his fan. But otherwise, there are much better movies out there.
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