This review may contain spoilers
this is easily most heartbreakingly beautiful film i have ever seen in my entire life. the cinematography was absolutely gorgeous and i loved how the series was just 2 broken people navigating what love and care means. and although they don’t face the exact challenges when it comes to their familial neglect, it doesn’t change the fact that they both experienced abandonment and standards.
i loved how they open haruki was about getting to know jin but still being careful knowing what type of image that might create for him. i love their mutual sacrifice for one another despite knowing the consequences of being involved with each other. i absolutely loved how haruki found meaning in his life through jin and how he dropped habits for him while Jin ended up picking them up. it really shows how strongly they felt for one another and how distance wasn’t going to change that.
i thoroughly enjoyed how after they met again in the timeskip haruki wasn’t afraid to get straight to the point and continue to keep in contact because he didn’t want to lose jin again.
the line, “your sea and my sea must be connected somewhere,” really spoke to me, and so many lines were so beautifully written it makes me forget that films like this even exist.
haruki’s letter to jin especially broke my heart and really showed me the lengths he’d go to change for him. him leaving behind the cd and his letter inside shows his growth to leaving behind his past and starting a new life, the lines in his letter,“if i hadn’t met you, i think i would have lived hating myself forever. being around you made me think i wanted to become a proper person for the first time. you, who are so extremely different from me, are exceedingly special to me. i think you’re amazing. i began to want to be a person who is worthy of that you.” it really characterizes his growth and his willingness to try harder. even just going to school more often because haruki wanted to see jin was progress. and i feel like the story was slightly realistic when haruki really believed he couldn’t change when he got accused for the shoplifting incident. i think it really shows how jin and haruki can’t fix each other entirely, but they can grow towards new versions of themselves together.
there’s a common theme in these type of films where they will use a time skip to emphasize growth and a lot of them are done poorly. however, i think the time skip in our youth is one of the examples of a time skip done properly and executed well. i loved how neither of them were actively seeking each other out and how haruki had proper time to grow and develop into a “better” person before meeting jin again. the time spent apart taught them a lot about themselves and the people they want to become and i think that aspect of the series was beautifully done.
overall, so beautiful and i will never forget the first time i watched this.
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