cassiopeiastars
This review may contain spoilers
Welcome Home Rui
Story/Acting/Cast/Characters
The storyline follows 93% of "Always" (the Korean version) in the storyline, characters, and even dialogue. Yet, the subtle changes made me enjoy this version a lot more than I thought I would. It differs from the Korean version in that it has less of a romantic melodrama feel. Even some lighthearted comedic scenes didn't make it to the Japanese version. The warm lighting from the Korean version was missing, and instead, we get more cool tone coloring. Another thing was the age. I thought it was off seeing such a young-looking actor play the male lead who is supposed to be in his 30's, but instead, they changed the Japanese lead character to be 24 years old.
The main difference that I see from the drama would be with the male lead Antonio/Rui/Ojisan. In the Japanese version, he becomes more stoic. He doesn't talk much, expresses himself less, and comes off a bit more aloof. In my opinion, this adds to the change in Antonio's past that I found lacking in "Always." With the slight change, I feel like the story shifts, and the screentime focuses more on Antonio and less on Kashiwagi Akari.
Yoshitaka Yuriko did great at expressing a bright Kashiwagi Akari, but I had trouble feeling her conviction when it came to the emotional scenes. I'm not too familiar with her, nor do I watch many Japanese movies/dramas, so I'm not sure if this is a difference in how culture's express emotions that I'm not used to.
Music
It's interesting to see the use of music and how it gets incorporated into dramas/movies. In the case of this movie, music wasn't present here. There were two distinct moments where I remember the music was when "Your Eyes Tell" made a presence in the movie. There were many silent moments where it's just dialogue and the natural crickets and street sounds. Instead, the silence made the focus of the dialogue a lot more important and matched the feel of the show a lot more. Unlike most dramas/movies, the lack of music made it so that the movie didn't try to extract emotions from us at dramatic moments in the storyline. Yet, we still got those same emotions due to the acting and directing, which was worth noting.
Overall Comparison Likes and Dislikes (spoilers included.)
Positives:
1. The theme of "おかえり" and "ただいま" was truly heartfelt in this movie. It tied into Antonio/Rui's backstory of being an orphan who never felt a sense of belonging in the world and, along the way, makes decisions that aren't the best.
2. Antonio's character setup leads to the writers wanting to create some character development for Antionio, and we see that and done quite well for a movie like this. Antonio wants redemption for himself, and even though he got his sentence and left the group, he felt like it was not enough. Especially with the reveal of his connection with Akari. His internal struggle was always there, being his weakness and now his strength to move on.
3. While I don't find the story of Romeo and Juliet beautiful, I do find that Shakespear writes beautifully. The line used in both movies, "Her eye discourses; I will answer it." I love how there was just a little bit more focus on in the Japanese version (literally one extra scene of Antonio staring at the braille words of it). So, in case you don't know, this was when Romeo was comparing Juliet's eyes to stars and how they shine ever so brightly. I found this line kind of ironic in this movie but so fitting. Akari's lack of sight is what brought them together, but at the same time, her eyes were the barrier to their relationship. And when I say "barrier," I mean in terms of how she lost her sight.
4. Some dialogue that was altered for the movie added more emotional depth to their relationship. I can think of three main dialogue scenes: the trip, the talking about the future, and the ending scene.
5. An extra positive point, I enjoyed the kickboxing scenes here, probably due to the angles and cuts. Yokohama Ryusei doesn't wear a tank top like how So Ji Sub did in the Korean version, so you'll definitely see his abs.
Negatives (specific scene spoilers. For this part, I suggest watching it first and then coming to read this to see if you have similar or different opinions):
In my opinion, there were three scenes in the Japanese version that were lacking for me and were pivotal to the movie.
1. Face tracing scene by the window. This scene should have emphasized her tracing his face and less of Akari holding Antonio's face. I thought this scene was so beautifully done in the Korean version from both So Ji Sub and Han Hyo Joo. The way she slowly traced his face with her fingers and tried to envision how he would look like. On the other end, he was shy and felt so much emotion for the woman in front of him. I didn't feel those same emotions in the Japanese version and was disappointed with the lack of emphasis. The reason why is that later on, when the female lead goes and tries to sculpt his face, she closes her eyes and tries to remember his features that she felt through her hands. We know that she was trying to remember this exact scene to recreate his face. In the Korean version, how she traced the sculpted clay was similar to how she traced his face in that scene.
2. Back Massage. While it was short, the back massage scene had a bit more emphasis in the Korean version and made sense later. Jung Hwa sat on his back longer to massage him while they talked, with cuts of her fingers massaging his back. Later on at the hospital, it wasn't until she flipped him onto his stomach and massaged him the same way that she felt the familiarity of the man she was massaging. The Japanese version had less focus on her massaging him on the bed, and she didn't even turn him on his back in the hospital later on but still felt the familiarity of him.
3. Reveal of Ajusshi/Ojisan. The way that the Korean version had it set up so that Jingga was the one who hinted that it was his dad came in sets: when Jingga ran to Ajusshi and knocked him over, Jingga and Jung Hwa staring at Ajusshi's back, and Jingga kept barking while they were inside. How they got the dog who plays Jingga to cooperate and made its body language seem like it recognized Ajusshi, along with the focus of Jingga was seamless. Suku is still a cute dog, but how the director included everything but the part where the female lead and dog stared at the male lead's lonely backside limping off. That part was replaced with the focus on Akari, saying, "What's wrong?" and then back to Ojisan with Akari and Suku blurred out. Then inside the store, instead of facing the door and barking, Suku was just barking. I don't know, this seems silly, but I feel like it added a lot to the reveal of our Ajusshi/Ojisan.
The storyline follows 93% of "Always" (the Korean version) in the storyline, characters, and even dialogue. Yet, the subtle changes made me enjoy this version a lot more than I thought I would. It differs from the Korean version in that it has less of a romantic melodrama feel. Even some lighthearted comedic scenes didn't make it to the Japanese version. The warm lighting from the Korean version was missing, and instead, we get more cool tone coloring. Another thing was the age. I thought it was off seeing such a young-looking actor play the male lead who is supposed to be in his 30's, but instead, they changed the Japanese lead character to be 24 years old.
The main difference that I see from the drama would be with the male lead Antonio/Rui/Ojisan. In the Japanese version, he becomes more stoic. He doesn't talk much, expresses himself less, and comes off a bit more aloof. In my opinion, this adds to the change in Antonio's past that I found lacking in "Always." With the slight change, I feel like the story shifts, and the screentime focuses more on Antonio and less on Kashiwagi Akari.
Yoshitaka Yuriko did great at expressing a bright Kashiwagi Akari, but I had trouble feeling her conviction when it came to the emotional scenes. I'm not too familiar with her, nor do I watch many Japanese movies/dramas, so I'm not sure if this is a difference in how culture's express emotions that I'm not used to.
Music
It's interesting to see the use of music and how it gets incorporated into dramas/movies. In the case of this movie, music wasn't present here. There were two distinct moments where I remember the music was when "Your Eyes Tell" made a presence in the movie. There were many silent moments where it's just dialogue and the natural crickets and street sounds. Instead, the silence made the focus of the dialogue a lot more important and matched the feel of the show a lot more. Unlike most dramas/movies, the lack of music made it so that the movie didn't try to extract emotions from us at dramatic moments in the storyline. Yet, we still got those same emotions due to the acting and directing, which was worth noting.
Overall Comparison Likes and Dislikes (spoilers included.)
Positives:
1. The theme of "おかえり" and "ただいま" was truly heartfelt in this movie. It tied into Antonio/Rui's backstory of being an orphan who never felt a sense of belonging in the world and, along the way, makes decisions that aren't the best.
2. Antonio's character setup leads to the writers wanting to create some character development for Antionio, and we see that and done quite well for a movie like this. Antonio wants redemption for himself, and even though he got his sentence and left the group, he felt like it was not enough. Especially with the reveal of his connection with Akari. His internal struggle was always there, being his weakness and now his strength to move on.
3. While I don't find the story of Romeo and Juliet beautiful, I do find that Shakespear writes beautifully. The line used in both movies, "Her eye discourses; I will answer it." I love how there was just a little bit more focus on in the Japanese version (literally one extra scene of Antonio staring at the braille words of it). So, in case you don't know, this was when Romeo was comparing Juliet's eyes to stars and how they shine ever so brightly. I found this line kind of ironic in this movie but so fitting. Akari's lack of sight is what brought them together, but at the same time, her eyes were the barrier to their relationship. And when I say "barrier," I mean in terms of how she lost her sight.
4. Some dialogue that was altered for the movie added more emotional depth to their relationship. I can think of three main dialogue scenes: the trip, the talking about the future, and the ending scene.
5. An extra positive point, I enjoyed the kickboxing scenes here, probably due to the angles and cuts. Yokohama Ryusei doesn't wear a tank top like how So Ji Sub did in the Korean version, so you'll definitely see his abs.
Negatives (specific scene spoilers. For this part, I suggest watching it first and then coming to read this to see if you have similar or different opinions):
In my opinion, there were three scenes in the Japanese version that were lacking for me and were pivotal to the movie.
1. Face tracing scene by the window. This scene should have emphasized her tracing his face and less of Akari holding Antonio's face. I thought this scene was so beautifully done in the Korean version from both So Ji Sub and Han Hyo Joo. The way she slowly traced his face with her fingers and tried to envision how he would look like. On the other end, he was shy and felt so much emotion for the woman in front of him. I didn't feel those same emotions in the Japanese version and was disappointed with the lack of emphasis. The reason why is that later on, when the female lead goes and tries to sculpt his face, she closes her eyes and tries to remember his features that she felt through her hands. We know that she was trying to remember this exact scene to recreate his face. In the Korean version, how she traced the sculpted clay was similar to how she traced his face in that scene.
2. Back Massage. While it was short, the back massage scene had a bit more emphasis in the Korean version and made sense later. Jung Hwa sat on his back longer to massage him while they talked, with cuts of her fingers massaging his back. Later on at the hospital, it wasn't until she flipped him onto his stomach and massaged him the same way that she felt the familiarity of the man she was massaging. The Japanese version had less focus on her massaging him on the bed, and she didn't even turn him on his back in the hospital later on but still felt the familiarity of him.
3. Reveal of Ajusshi/Ojisan. The way that the Korean version had it set up so that Jingga was the one who hinted that it was his dad came in sets: when Jingga ran to Ajusshi and knocked him over, Jingga and Jung Hwa staring at Ajusshi's back, and Jingga kept barking while they were inside. How they got the dog who plays Jingga to cooperate and made its body language seem like it recognized Ajusshi, along with the focus of Jingga was seamless. Suku is still a cute dog, but how the director included everything but the part where the female lead and dog stared at the male lead's lonely backside limping off. That part was replaced with the focus on Akari, saying, "What's wrong?" and then back to Ojisan with Akari and Suku blurred out. Then inside the store, instead of facing the door and barking, Suku was just barking. I don't know, this seems silly, but I feel like it added a lot to the reveal of our Ajusshi/Ojisan.
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