9/10
Crying Out Love... the right way
26 June 2008
This film very much resembles "Sekai no Chuushin...". In fact, they basically copied "SekaChuu" with boy and girl flipped, 5 years younger, and added DJing.

However, this film was far superior in my opinion. Fukuda Mayuko is my favorite child actress, and Nishida Naomi is an actress I really respect. I was already satisfied with just these two, but Kamiki Ryuunosuke who played the Little DJ was surprisingly suitable for the role and had performed exceptionally well, especially for a child actor. Casting in this film was exceptionally well done, from father, doctor, to modern-day Tamaki with Hirosue Ryouko, were all perfect. I have never seen Nishida Naomi in a mother role before, but her acting was incredibly convincing, and have become even more beautiful in these years. A scene with her and Fukuda Mayuko (Tamaki) was the highlight of this movie. Extremely enjoyable film just observing the acting skill of every actor who appeared on screen.

The story is very inspirational and touching, and unlike "SekaChuu", it had a really nice flow and used the 2-hour screen time very efficiently without getting draggy. Music was also very calming and moving at times, and overall extremely well produced and well directed as a movie. I especially loved the color saturation of this film, the '70s feel without seeming fakey or even showing a slight hint of corniness.

Although they completely copied the story from "SekaChuu", this movie turned out to be a far superior love story. The only flaw, after the second viewing, was that there were some plot devices and characters severely underused (and thus didn't have to exist at all). It's a tear-jerker like many other movies of its kind, but its message of hope in the ending and its use of songs were by far the best. A Junai-lover must-see.
11 out of 13 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

Recently Viewed