Today, I present you with much lighter fare. No surprise tragic endings here, my friend! There is, of course, a melodramatic twist... but would we really be satisfied if there wasn't? Of course not.
(Well I don't know, maybe you would. There's not accounting for taste, I suppose.)
But, per usual, I digress.
Today, we will be discussing:
いつかの君へ (Itsuka no Kimi e; To the You of Someday)
With a tagline like 「ずっとそばにいてほしい」 (I always want you beside me), you know it's going to be good. Or, you know, at least not end in horrible, horrible sadness. (Though I admit, for the last ten minutes, I kept wondering how the director was going to fuck this one up. Shark attack? Super-volcano? WHAT?)
(Side note- Yes, both of the above are my translations. I wouldn't normally find the need to specify, but you know... the translation thieves. I'd hate to be counted among them. Especially for something so simple. I mean really.)
Made in 2007, いつかの君へ does, in fact, have links to Boys Love; remember Noeru? Well, he's Noboru this time around. Oh ho ho, clearly, this man was born to play roles which involve explicit homosexuality and No-ru names. (Of course, he also plays Noboru's twin brother Ryuu... so there goes the second part of that hypothesis. First part still holds, though.) In my opinion, this role is not nearly as well acted, which is strange considering that the movie was made later in his career... Let's just say, he doesn't do the angst very well.
His voice is still very nice though. Oh ho ho.
Digressing again. Kawai Ryuunosuke co-stars, and I can't tell you a whole lot about him. His character, Hayase, however, I can give you books on. A dorkier protagonist you could never hope to meet. This guy defines the word. He wears swim goggles while chopping onions, and still sobs his way through it. It may sound trivial, but honestly? I think that's an excellent demonstration of his character right there.
Unfortunately, as both Wikipedia and IMDB are pretty dry on the subject, I can't give you much technical information about the movie. From here on out, it's summary and opinion all the way, Edo-style.
Aren't you just thrilled to pieces.
First off, this movie is not nearly as melodramatic as Boys Love. That said, however, don't mistake it for a comedy. Yes, Hayase is a first class dork who appears to have the mentality of an ADHD five year old; however, he is the polar opposite of Noboru, who doesn't speak, doesn't have friends, and appears to be haunted by he existence of his twin.
At first, the two have no real relationship; Noboru is just that weird anti-social kid that Hayase's group of friends makes fun of. They're all in the same photography class, but seem to have no further connection. Everything changes, of course, when Noboru saves Hayase's life, in true melodramatic romance fashion: Hayase, moron that he is, tips over his rented canoe during a date with his unbelievably annoying girlfriend, and he can't right himself. He is eventually dragged ashore, unconscious and not breathing, by friends and marina workers. Noboru, who just happens to be nearby (what do I know, maybe this lake is the hip place to be), performs mouth-to-mouth (in what I think to be a medically dubious fashion), which of course revives Hayase. Revives him slightly confused about his sexuality, oh ho ho.
Hence, romantic tension.
(Side note- No, I have NO idea where this movie takes place. I'm guessing somewhere in the bum-end of Kanto, based on speech patterns and the fact that... well, lake.)
The rest of the movie follows the relationship between both Hayase and Noboru, whom Hayase has found himself to be strangely fascinated by, and Hayase and Noboru's twin Ryuu, whom he met by accident, thinking he was Noboru.
Admittedly, for the first half an hour of the movie, I wondered who the romantic tension was supposed to be with.
And then, of course, there is the twist.
...which I won't spoil for you, because if you don't see it coming, you're not paying enough attention. I mean, really, they hit you over the head with it any number of times.
... however, if you figure out why or even how, I'd love to hear it, because I still haven't figured it out myself. I might need to watch this one again...
I suppose I should have turned on those subtitles. Curse my pride. Boys Love, honestly, I understood nearly one hundred percent. This movie? I don't know, man. Maybe listening to Japanese heavy metal all day does bad things for my listening comprehension...
(Side note- Yes, we'll talk about that later.)
A little embarrassing really.
But even when I turned on the subtitles at the end? They did not help. I'm beginning to think that it's intentionally ambiguous, but... as always, I would love to hear your opinions.
All I'm saying is that movie is possibly a lot more... supernatural than it would lead you to believe. But damn it all, I just don't know!
Possibly, it suffers from its length; it's barely over an hour long. I'm not saying, of course, that you need two hours to truly tell a story, but... well, I'm just used to my Japanese movies taking about that long is all.
In conclusion? I'd recommend it. Definitely an enjoyable watch... even if I'm still not quite sure what happened in the end. It's happy, and that's what's important!
This is Edo, signing off whilst thinking that melodrama really does work better in printed form.
2 comments:
I wanna see it, too!!!! :-/
I might just be able to help you out there. :3
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