SYNOPSIS:
Mei
has been in love with Yuya all her life. They’ve grown
up together. But when they reach their second year of middle
school, Yuya suddenly professes his love for her older sister,
Haruna.
Struggling to rebound from her decade-long crush, Mei finds
comfort in the close camaraderie of her school friends, Taka,
Mia, Yuri, Natsu, Mitsu and Sara and then meets a reticent
and gentle-natured boy named Atsushi. The two begin to realize
that they share many things in common that seem to transcend
mere coincidence: the same birthday (February 29th, 1992)
and a previous encounter when they were both 8. Feeling a
bond of fate, they grow closer.
But destiny can have a dark side to it, too, and a shocking
revelation from both of their pasts compels Atsushi to pull
away from Mei. The devastating separation then unleashes a
wave of misfortune upon Mei: the death of a loved one, drug
addiction and domestic violence. As circumstances seek to
take control of her life, Mei struggles to maintain her faith
in the tenuous thread of destiny that will reunite her with
her true love.
MOVIE REVIEW:
In recent years, there's been a trend of TV series getting a big screen treatment due to the popularity of the original series. It's an obvious financial tactic to cash in on what's popular and while some TV series create a standalone movie (eg The Simpsons Movie) or finishing the TV series with a finale movie (eg Gokusen: The movie), Threads of Destiny took a rather "despicable" move by placing the movie right in between the TV series (therefore effectively"forcing" fans of the series to purchase a ticket for the movie or fan of the movie to follow their exploits with the on going TV series). The synopsis at the back of this dvd cover also seemed to be overly convoluted with Mei, the leading female protagonist recovering from a decade crush to finding her soul mate who happened to be born on the same day as her.
Unexpectedly, this movie was quite captivating that it made this reviewer forgets the initial disdain for the cunning marketing plans and unimpressive synopsis write up. Thankfully, this movie chose to focus on the turmoils between these two love birds who are born on the same day and removed the "decade crush that fell for the sister" angle. There might be some subtle hints to linkage with the TV series but mostly, it works as a standalone movie.
The bit that truly excel (and therefore captivate the reviewer's attention) would be the ability to drag out various school days romance politics. These are stuff that fuel the teenagers' classroom juicy gossip topics. Boy A likes Girl B, Girl B likes Boy A, Boy C likes Girl B, Girl D likes Boy C and tells Girl B about it while Boy A had to break off with Girl B due to some mysterious history pertaining to his Mom. It dwells well with the teenage heartache anguish and the sense of being lost after the unexpected end of a relationship.
It also touched on the dark side of such relationship woes. Such as the abusive nature of one with low self confidence, the escapism of problem with drug usage and how trust could turn into a deadly betrayal. It also shows why there are woman who put up with abusive relationship and their weird reasoning which actually made sense here. There's a lot of twist and turn to keep viewers glued to what's going to happened in this relationship that plagued with so many obstacles.
In the end, this movie managed elicit one's interest in finding out more about the fate of these star crossed lovers. Will they eventually find their happy endings in the TV series? It's not for everyone but for those who want to relive those naive and bittersweet schooldays romance will find something to muse with in the Threads of Destiny.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
NIL
AUDIO/VISUAL:
This DVD does well to present this special movie episode that detours from a TV series. The visual look great for a modern TV series and since this is a dialogue filled romantic drama, the audio department of this dvd did well enough to convey the sweet nothings that are spouting out from various characters.
MOVIE RATING:
 
DVD
RATING:
Review by Richard Lim Jr
Posted on 4 January 2010
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