2017.01.16 Please Please Please Review

[aikokanzaki]

I've literally just come back from the cinema after watching this! I saw it was on the schedule list yesterday and thought 'I must watch this asap!!' So I did!　So first things first is the official stuff and credits:

Official Site here
Press Release and Coverage 1, 2, 3 (*also photo credit)
Trailer / Teaser 1, 2

CAST/CHARACTERS

Sato Ryuji = Shinji
Sato Hisanori = Nao
Akazawa Tomoru = Aoi
Nogawa Taichi = Dai
Takano Kenji = KenKen
Kuroba Mario = Kiyoshi

There are more but... shhh...

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PS. I'm gunna change the format up again so let me know which you prefer: non-spoiler / overall comments first or last ^_^

PPS.. Apparently it's Sato Ryuuji's fucking birthday today! So it was the perfect time to watch this movie!! HAPPY 22ND BIRTHDAY!!! <3 some pic spam xD














OKAY! Back to the actual review! ....

This was a film I was anticipating anyway and so I jumped at the chance of seeing it asap!

Non-Spoiler/Overall:

Went into it without knowing what the hell was going to happen and I'm so glad I did! It's not a movie I usually watch because it was very indie or at least had the feel to it as it was a perfect production; it definitely had some sound troubles and some of the shots (like camera looking up to the actors) were too artistic to be coming from one of the (two) big film companies in Japan.

I thoroughly enjoyed the story even though it mentally broke me and my heart was crying at the end (a few real tears did slip out); it's definitely dark, realistic and bittersweet but there's those realistic moments of laughing even in the crappiest times which really warmed my heart <3 I was thoroughly impressed by Kuroba Mario's performance and saw a side of his acting I hadn't seen before. Also Sato Ryuji's smile is one of the most pure things ever!

(HOLY SHIT I DO HAVE RYUJI'S SINGLE FOR THIS MOVIE ON MY LAPTOP!!! OMG!! *LISTENS*)

If you get chance and want to see something a bit indie-esque, watch this! I am impress by it that much! My only complaint is Akazawa Tomoru's acting when he did the angry scene at the beginning; I don't think he's cut out for angry/horrible characters because his yelling just fell flat for me personally; least he tried xD

Rating: 9/10

Now onto ALL the spoilers and story telling!!

SPOILER REVIEW:

To be honest I'd only seen the teaser trailer from MONTHS ago and had no idea what it was about!

So, to be honest I was surprised when the first scene we got was Shinji (played by Sato Ryuji) and a girl putting their heads together in silence and it was this romantic scene but then the next moment he's like attacking her in a tunnel but then he's kneeling and kissing her slashed wrists but then he leads her to Aoi (played by Akazawa Tomoru, known as Tomorun) who he then blackmails into giving her stuff and she's pay for it, for Shinji's sake, in any means possible and then after that deal is made Shinji rings her and says 'sorry' and throws the phone away and that's apparently what he's done all this time in order to get money. So yeah, it got dark FAST. At first I was like 'No my Precious Ryuji!! He was like 20 when they filmed this!! Don't taint him yet!' But he really proved himself in this. I soon forgot about his age and was completely convinced he was the character and not Ryuji -- EXCEPT when he smile; OMG such an angel smile! Whenever he smiled, even in his difficult moments, I couldn't help but smile too <3 Also I do really enjoyt the opening scene because of HOW CLOSE UP the camera is! It's like 'nose and eyes only' close! His eye lashes are so pretty... I'll stop(!)

Then we switch to his younger brother Nao, (yes younger! Wtf?! Hisanora had a good FOUR years on Ryuji at least yet he's playing the younger brother xD) and turns it he's doing ore ore sagi in order to get money and he does it with a group of friends who while they do have good times together, there's a a lot of tension and serious abuse between them.

There's this wonderful moment half way through the movie when him and his friends (Dai, KenKen and BoBo) are drinking, having a laugh, having an amazing time and then it gets to that moment (we all know it; most have experienced it) where you've drank so much the mood drops dramatically and they're all just sad there in silence, in this room of gloom and to make matter worse, they're all shirtless and Nao even has fairy lights on him and the scene turns a little sinister. I could relate to that scene all too well. Another is at the beginning where Dai is joking telling KenKen to go die but he suddenly goes 'don't tell me to die' and it gets super serious for a while, but then they start to get naked (why boys) and begin to play games and lock him out of their place and it becomes light and happy again. Again I really enjoyed that dip in mood because it does happen, especially when (as it felt in here) you're friends only through convenience rather than being genuine friends.

Throughout the movie we watch Shinji record music and get told by his producer that he could go pro with this and there's an external narration that talks about 'he never told anyone about it... maybe because he didn't even believe himself that he could do it' and I really resonated with that message; especially recently when I've been trying to decide what's my next step when it comes to work and careers and I've actually been attempting a lot of work without telling a soul and I do believe it's because I don't believe in myself so why tell others; so yes I completed related to this. And thus his producer tells him he can go pro and all of a sudden his life is much lighter and he's much nicer about the world and there's this beautiful moment where he and his producer are in the studio and his producer is drunk and dancing while Shinji (actually Ryuji) plays the drums and seeing his smile << yes we're going back to the 'butter would most definitely melt a thousand times over if they saw it' smile. It warmed my heart so much!!! <3333

The brothers apparently haven't seen or spoken to each other for a while and Shinji always works alone, but one day when Nao is on a swindle at an old grandma's place Shinji turns up and what they thought was a normal swindle, ends up spiralling when the grandma invites them in to stay for the night and she'll promise to go to the bank (and get their money) tomorrow. At first they're hesitant and Shinji tries to leave, but grandma feeds them and gives them (what can only been shown as) strong and disgusting alcohol which get's them completely startk drunk. And there's this beautiful scene where they watch the grandma perform an old Japanese dance while they smile and laugh as they watch; it's such a beautiful moment!

And then the next day they both wake up sharing a blanket and sleeping next to each other and as soon as they wake up they face each other (my brain went BL-y, sorry!) but immediately come to their sense and move away from each other. It was a cute comedic moment <3 the grandma gives them the money and also says 'thank you for letting me redo my life once more' and this hits the boys because the concept of starting over never really occured to them until that moment.

Thanks to that grandma they both begin to start changing. One day Nao turns up to the grandma's house with manju and Shinji also turns up randomly, unfortunately she's no where to be found and they find her (having tripped and fallen) up the mountain (she was on her way to a temple most likely) and run to the hospital but unfortunately it's too late and she passes. This hits them really hard and they ALSO learnt she had no grandchildren which meant she knew full well they were tricking her yet she still gave them all her money. At that point they decide they should find their father and fix everything between them.

Throughout the story we get a female narration over the entire movie and eventually (about half way through we meet her) and she is one of the girls Shinji swindled about 6 months before and she talks about how she loves him and she carries on pursueing him because she loves him, and then there's a scene where she explains that they (Shinji and Nao) once watched their mother do a beautiful traditional Japanese dance on the beach as the father played the drums. She then comments 'but this is just something they made a reality in their heads together'. The mother is dead and the father left them and now has a family of their own.

Which brings me to the semi-climax of the story (yes already but it ties in with the narration), the boys decide to find their father and through connects they find out where he lives. Turns out he's on the island next to where they live and he's already remarried and has a young daughter. When they get there, the father things they're loan sharks so runs away from his house leaving his daughter with them. At first she's uncertain but they come in normally and make food for her and they bond at the table and enjoy their dinner. The father eventually sees this by peaking through the window. Then the female narration starts; they would never actually know what his daughter looked like, because this is just what I imagined, in reality...

And turned out the police find and catch them before they even get on the boat!!!! *dead* I was so angry! Turns out the narrator/girl is the one that reported them to the police and told them everything! So everyone including Nao's friends got caught!!! My heart was breaking!! I wanted that first ending to be so real! AND turns out she's now marrying one of the cops who she told!!! I was angry. Fuck her xD but I think we're supposed to end up feeling like this and being on the guys' sides.

It's funny that the (semi-)ending was the way it was because RIGHT at the beginning of the movie I was like 'I hope one of these girls really fucks them up and they get attested' and then the film goes and does it!!! But by that point I was like 'these boys are precious! They're learning! They're so close to changing--- nooooo don't fucking catch them!!!!' And my heart my broken inside. Ugh why did she report them?!?!?!

She finds Aoi at the end too and he ends up telling her the boys entire past and their story and he simply says 'they were idiots... and they got caught. I don't care what happens' and he leaves her.

Omg the actually ending!!!! We watch Aoi run from one of the harbours (in fact the one where the boys got arrested) into a super expensive white car with blacked out windows and then all of a sudden we get English 'how are you feeling?' But he doesn't answer and THEN the machine they're recently sagi'd the old woman to buy ended up lighting up and exploding and THAT was the end?!?! Wtf?!?! I wanna know what the fuck Tomorun's chara was REALLY up to?!?!?! I need more!!!

As I said in the non-spoiler review: Tomorun's acting when he did the angry scene at the beginning was that great; a little cringy and I personally don't think he's cut out for angry/horrible characters BUT he tried at least xD

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Now that the main story is out of the way, I can discuss a few more things:

Mario's performance was short lived but holy crap it was good! So turned out both him AND Shinji were tricked out of money and the guy had up shop with their money and their debut CDs. now Mario's character had come to find him gone and was naturally super pissed. He's immediately yellin and pins Shinji against the wall (another BL moment for my brain) 'you were his friend right. You know where he is! Can't believe I believed his lying about debuting. He's taken all my money' Shinji realises what's gone on and that he's been thrown in the same trap but doesn't let anyone else know 'only those that fall for it are the bad ones' but obviously he's heart broken. Mario's angry and violent moment was like a minute long but damn it was flawless acting! I've never seen him act like that before and it was amazing!! He should defo play stronger and darker roles more in the future!

Also I did giggle at one point cos Ryuji has a tank top on and you could easily see it was during a shaved armpit era (most likely for TouMyu) and the little black dots in his pits were so amusing to me xD

Omg the cinematography! You can tell how indie this is by not only the odd dodgy sound recording at times (sometimes there was no real mic it seemed and everything was caught on the sound board and the actual voices sounded distant and such), but also how the way it was shot! There were some BEAUTIFUL and creative shots!! Especially the camera looking up shots; I couldn't get enough of them!! They were so good! I think this was beautiful shot! There's one specific scene (before Nao and Shinji start fighting on a beach) where the camera is tilted up and the sun is behind them so you can only see their siloettes and I loved the shot so much!! They ALSO used the slow-mo shot out of the movie too!!

Another BL moment is, at one point Aoi and Shinji are talking and Aoi is super up against Shinji and passing him something and we can only see their shadows against the tunnel wall as they speak and I super thought 'omg are they secrelty in a gay relationship and hiding it from his brother?!' my silly brain... Oh and the beach fight scene was pretty BL-y too xD

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I did it!!! So let me know which format you prefer ^_^

I should REALLY go to sleep now (almost 2am I think)

Let me know in the comments below!