SYNOPSIS:
Mika and Hiro are in their first year of high school
when they fall in love with each other. They vow to overcome
all obstacles together and love each other forever. However,
in their second year, Hiro initiates a break up with Mika.
After the failure of her first love, a deeply hurt Mika befriended
a university student student, Yu. In order to forget Hiro,
Mika dates Yu. She is touched by Yu's patience and gentleness
and decides to accept his love.
Mika manages to enter the same university as Yu. During their
first Christmas together, Mika discovers a heart-breaking
secret about Hiro.
MOVIE REVIEW:
The cover of this DVD tells us that the movie is based on
a cell phone novel that moved 20 million people to tears.
Even before we popped the disc into the player, we knew what
to expect - There’s this star crossed couple. One of
the will probably get cancer and die in the name of love.
Both the boy and girl are pretty human beings. They share
their lovey dovey moments in even prettier landscape backdrops.
And yes, they speak in Japanese.
Come
on, as much as we wish to play the hero/ heroine in our very
own love stories, how often does it happen to real life?
Out
of obligation, we’ll tell you the story of this picturesque
movie: A boy and a girl fall in love. They are so in love
with each other, they bravely fight through countless hardships
just to be with each other. So when the boy suddenly tells
the girl that he wants a breakup, the girl is shocked beyond
words. Of course, this is where the supposed twist comes in
and the movie attempts to turn on your tear ducts when the
truth comes to light.
We
didn’t think we needed to reveal more what this plot
turn is, because we trust that our readers are intelligent
enough to figure this out themselves. But why is this still
a box office success? Because we are suckers for tearjerkers
like this, no matter how predictable they have become. Seriously,
a Japanese genre movie like this can’t be that bad.
Your eyes will be treated to pretty human beings, pretty sceneries
and pretty cinematography – so what’s there to
complain about?
Directed
by Natsuki Imai who has helmed a few TV series, this 129 minute
movie does feel lengthy at times, but thanks to its two leads
Haruma Miura (his dyed white hair is a major distraction)
and Yui Aragaki (Japanese girls like her never fail to cheer
up our day), the story keeps going until its solemn finale
where the boy says something which deserves a place in your
pickup line dictionary: “Clear skies will mean you are
happy. Rain will mean you're crying. Sunset means you are
embarrassed. Night will mean you are gently holding me.”
Guys,
go learn that in Japanese and charm some girl out there. We
guarantee that she will be quite impressed.
SPECIAL
FEATURES:
This Code 3 DVD contains only no extra features.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
The
disc’s visual transfer is decent enough to showcase
the pretty Japanese boys and girls. The movie is presented
in its original Japanese track, as well as a dubbed Mandarin
track.
MOVIE RATING:
DVD
RATING:
Review by John Li
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