Wow, a not completely unfeeling Naoki! :0 To be honest, I was skeptical at first because I heard that the FL was annoying in other reviews, but she actually wasn’t bad at all in comparison to other FL renditions of Kotoko (ahem 2017 Japanese film version). She was just… forgettable, in the sense that if any other actress had replaced her, it wouldn’t have made much of a difference. Just to note - this film didn’t completely feel like Itazura na Kiss, and Darren Wang didn’t really feel like Naoki at all, and this makes sense given the fact that the director/writer(s) took liberties with the story. It didn’t feel as rushed as it could’ve been if they left everything the same and followed the manga scene by scene, which often leads to more vignettes of the story mashed up into one (which was mostly a criticism I felt I had for the Japanese ItaKiss trilogy). I thought the way they merged some scenes together and reinvented them was a good idea for the overall pacing of the film, but again it loses most of the original manga’s essence. I liked Darren’s portrayal of Irie as FINALLY we can see more of his side of the story and how he gradually came to love Kotoko in the first place. He was definitely a warmer Naoki than his Japanese and Korean counterparts, and overall felt more human and relatable (he also actually smiled more, which was shocking).

I felt like the casting for Naoki’s family was a bit off and didn’t get highlighted as much as they should have (i.e. the brother), and was surprised that Kin-chan didn’t have as many parts as I thought he would (he was mostly forgotten towards the second half of the film), but I didn’t mind it too much. Overall though, it was a cute adaptation that felt more like it was inspired by Itazura na Kiss but was its own story completely. I still enjoyed it and it’s a cute movie worth a watch!