This is a story about high school class projects and a contest between two teams making cell-phone movies (in Japan, the school year continues during the summer). One team won financial support from their school. The other is bootstrapping it. Between bouts of running, jumping, and especially squealing by ostensibly young female students (see below), there are some diversions involving time travel fantasies and a male high school student from the future. Things progress in fairly typical rom-com fashion until the movie's ending scenes. Here the student director of the bootstrapped movie rewrites the ending of her movie which she stages live when her movie is shown to a high school audience. (Film directors seem to always want to make changes to "improve" their creations right up to the premieres and this time this student director pulls it off !) In closing scenes, actors spout nonsensical lines from a script that appears to struggle to wrap things up. Moreover, characters as portrayed drastically lack audience appeal with actors appearing more intent on trying to play much younger roles rather than striving to develop actor-viewer chemistry. Cinematography, lighting, and editing are fine. Subtitles seem close enough. Any low expectations will be fully realized. Viewed at a JICC Virtual J-Film event. WILLIAM FLANIGAN.
Review of It's a Summer Film!
