Today I thought I would write my thoughts on a show on Netflix called A Whisker Away, which I watched recently. This is interesting because from the title alone, you probably wouldn’t have the slightest clue what this would be about. But if you read it in its Japanese title, you know you can expect it to be mellow as it is literally “Wanting to Cry, I Pretend to Be a Cat” (泣きたい私は猫をかぶる). What could this story possibly be about??
Sasaki Miyo seems like your average high school girl. If you saw her around outside or in school, you wouldn’t think there was anything wrong, except that she was a little weird. She spends most of her time in school chasing after her crush, Hinode Kento persistently although her feelings go unreciprocated. Unknown to most people, Miyo is unhappy with her life as her mother abandoned her at a young age and she now has to live with her father and stepmother.
One day when she wanders off on her own at a festival, she comes across a mysterious mask seller who sells her a cat mask, known as a Nō which is able to transform her into a cat when she puts it on. As a cat, Miyo frequently visits Hinode at his house and spends long hours with him as she watches him go about his activities and he tells her about his troubles. Although Miyo longs to tell Hinode that the cat he loves and the girl he hates are the same person, she is unable to do it out of fear of rejection.
Things come to a head when Miyo’s problems regarding her parents and a rejection from Hinode reach her breaking limit. She runs away from home, deciding that it’s better to live as a cat than as herself due to the pain. At the moment of her decision, her human face falls off and the mysterious mask seller turns up to collect it, saying that now that she has decided that she does not want to be human, she will soon turn into a cat permanently. It’s time for Miyo to really think if despite all her problems, it is still worth living.
Putting myself in Miyo’s shoes, I think anyone would have easily felt the way she did as her life was in such a mess. She felt abandoned by her mother, isolated from her father and stepmother and was rejected from the guy whom she wanted acceptance from the most. On top of that, she could unconditionally receive acceptance from Hinode if she was a cat. There were clearly more pros to being a cat than staying as a human. Or was there?
I came across this word while scrolling through Facebook the other day and it piqued my interest.
Ikigai, which means “a reason for being”, is used to refer to having a direction or purpose in life, that which makes one’s life worthwhile. It seemed that while Miyo was fine in putting up with her family’s circumstances (even if it means putting on a facade), her ikigai was dependent on Hinode because that’s what made her look forward to the next day. In addition, the thought of winning him over made life worth living despite it being dreadful. While you don’t expect teenagers that age to have a meaningful purpose in life yet, we get to see exactly why it is dangerous to place your purpose of existence on someone else. I think that’s the beauty of this show, because it explores such a deep question: what are you living for?
No matter how bleak the outlook seems, there is always something worth living for because here’s the reality: all things will pass, good and bad. Although our pain now may seem endless and the problems enduring, if we anchor ourselves to something stable, stay positive and keep moving forward, we will eventually move past the obstacle that we thought we couldn’t climb. Miyo sort of realises this too, albeit a little late when she’s on the brink of turning into a cat permanently as she realises that if she does turn into a cat, she will never be able to see Hinode again and fix her relationship with her family. She learns that life is still worth living despite its downs because you can always try again and again. Of course, she and Hinode eventually get together in a bit of unrealistic fashion (Hinode confesses that he doesn’t hate her but that doesn’t mean he likes her romantically either y’know?) and she manages to fix all her relationships with the people around her.
Still, I was rather surprised by the story and at how much I liked it despite it being a little predictable. The art is captivating at certain moments and the emotions portrayed are raw and real because the problems Miyo face and how she deals with them are relatable. Most of all, the message of the story is clear: life may not be perfect, but it is always worth living.
Last month when I went on holiday to Japan, I had the opportunity to choose from a whole selection of Japanese movies in the in-flight entertainment system on the way there and back. To my surprise, I found Heroine Shikkaku there! I’ve been wanting to watch it ever since I discovered its existence during AFA 2015 so here was one great opportunity since it’s really hard to obtain Japanese movies in English subtitles.
I’m not going to delve too much into the story because I’ve already reviewed Heroine Shikkaku back in 2014. You can click here to read my original thoughts and reflections of the story when I first read it but here’s a brief summary anyway!
Heroine Shikkaku follows protagonist Matsuzaki Hatori as she chases her childhood love in high school. Hatori has an interesting view of the people around her, seeing herself as the “Heroine” of the story and her childhood friend and crush Terasaka Rita as the “Hero” while everyone else as “Calefare” or “Supporting Characters”. As she is Rita’s childhood friend, she believes that she will get him one day and that it is destined to be.
However, things do not go as planned out in her head and when Rita saves a nerdy-looking girl in their class from being picked on by some bullies, the girl becomes infatuated with him and confesses to him shortly after. Finding no reason why he shouldn’t date her, Rita agrees to go out with the girl, named Adachi.
Shocked at the sudden turn of events that she had never taken into account before, Hatori begins to experience heartbreak and with encouragement from her stoic but wise best friend Nakajima, she begins to work on winning back Rita’s heart.
But things aren’t so easy when Adachi begins to become prettier from being with Rita. And to top it off, the school’s pretty boy has taken a keen interest in Hatori and has his eyes set on her. Things have only just gotten a lot messier and complicated than it should have.
I have absolutely no complaints about the story itself because no matter how ridiculous it did seem later on, I really liked how the premise of the story was. I even remember writing a short post on it after reading its first few chapters, thinking to myself, “Wow, this is amazing, it is so relatable” because who hasn’t had a longtime-crush who was taken away from us right under our noses because we were too shy to confess? Everyone okay, EVERYONE.
Whether the live-action adaptation stuck closely and faithfully to the storyline of the manga, according to my current memory, I’ll say it did 70% of the time. Which is not too bad, really. Plus, Heroine Shikkaku was highly enjoyable to watch.
First, I want to give high praise to Kiritani Mirei, who was spot on on Hatori’s reactions, expressions – everything. When she was miserable and crying over Rita, I felt my heart break as well. When she was mean and snobbish to Adachi, I even felt like siding with her. To imitate Hatori in the manga, Kiritani Mirei had some exaggerated expressions to do and I didn’t think the movie would actually include this little detail in but her exaggerated expressions were HILARIOUS. She was absolutely a darling to watch, so funny and dear. I am pleased and satisfied to say that she was the right choice to play Hatori, without a doubt.
As for Yamazaki Kento. Haha. I’m a teensy bit annoyed with the producers for this: I know that he has a pretty face and I really do like him BUT WHY IS HE BEING CAST IN ALL THE RECENT WELL-KNOWN SHOUJO LIVE-ACTION ADAPTATIONS? Is there like, nobody else to play those other well-loved male protagonists? As of now, Yamazaki Kento has these shoujo live-action adaptations on his slate: L-DK, Orange, Ookami Shoujo to Kuro Ouji, Heroine Shikkaku, Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso and in all of these, he’s the male protagonist. Guh. I don’t hate Yamazaki Kento, in fact, I like him but this is just too much overload. Producers, please don’t do this in the future. I don’t want to look at Yamazaki Kento and see him as Kageyama Shuusei, Naruse Kakeru, Sata Kyouya, Terasaka Rita and Arima Kousei respectively ALL AT ONCE.
Okay rant over, sorry about that. Back to Yamazaki Kento’s performance as Terasaka Rita.
Honestly, as Rita, he didn’t really have much to do. Except look cool, calm and nonchalant about almost everything. It’s a personality similar to a previous role he played – L-DK‘s Kageyama Shuusei minus the perverted teasing. So I can’t really fault him there for not showing much emotion. Because that’s what’s he’s supposed to be. Emotionless haha. Okay I shan’t be so mean.
Oh yes, as an afterthought, I think it’d be really interesting to keep an eye on Sakaguchi Kentaro, the one who plays Hiromitsu Kosuke because we’ll be seeing him real soon in another supporting role to look out for – Sunakawa Makoto in the live-action adaptation of Ore Monogatari!!
Anyway if you’ve never heard of Heroine Shikkaku, you should totally check it out. It’s highly entertaining and relatable – you’ll just love it. Girls, anyway haha. You can either start by reading the manga or try to get your hands on the movie but you’ll have a better chance at starting with the manga first because last time I checked, I couldn’t find a download of the movie – and with English subtitles, those are a pain.
Finally, here’s the trailer of Heroine Shikkaku to give you a taste of what the movie’s like. Who wouldn’t love Kiritani Mirei after hearing her wail “NAKAJIMAAA” into Fukuda Ayano HAHAHA
Today I’ll be reviewing Boruto: Naruto the Movie, which I watched in the cinemas last Friday (which was once again the last day of its showing. HOW does this happen to me AGAIN???). My apologies that it took a while but here it is!
Boruto: Naruto the Movie takes place a few years after The Last: Naruto the Movie and it focuses on Uzumaki Boruto, Naruto and Hinata’s brattish yet prodigious son. In the background of the story stirs an impending threat with relation to Otsutsuki Kaguya that threatens to destroy the current era of peace.
THE STORY:
Now a Genin, Boruto is put in a team with Uchiha Sarada, Sasuke and Sakura’s daughter and the mysterious Mitsuki, under the guidance of their team leader, Konohamaru. Smart and adept at picking up skills (just like Sasuke), Boruto has already mastered the Shadow Clone Jutsu and has already started to use nature transformations (three, in fact). After single-handedly subduing a bear for their mission, Team Konohamaru is introduced to a new gadget called a Kote, which stores and releases jutsu and can be used by anyone, including non-jutsu users.
Later in the Hokage’s office, Katasuke, the developer of the Kote pitches his idea to Naruto to allow its use in the Chunin Exams. However, Naruto immediately refuses, saying that allowing the use of the Kote would not showcase a shinobi’s true abilities.
As the story progresses, we see the strained relationship between Naruto and Boruto, who finds it hard to accept and connect with a father who is rarely around. When Naruto fails to show up personally at Himawari’s birthday celebration, Boruto snaps and bursts out angrily at Hinata, saying that Naruto must have been lucky to have experienced the joy of having no parents and goes into Naruto’s study. There, he sees Naruto’s old, tattered orange jacket and in a fit of rage, throws it out of the window.
When the doorbell rings, he immediately gets up and runs to the door. Upon opening it, he throws a punch at the person at the door, who turns out to be Sasuke. When he realises that Sasuke is Sarada’s dad and his dad’s only equal and rival, he stalks Sasuke to seize an opportunity to talk to him.
At the Hokage’s office, Sasuke throws a scroll from Kaguya’s castle to Naruto and tells him of the impending threat and that he needs help deciphering it. The two also discuss Boruto and have a bet on whether the nature of shinobi has changed. While Naruto says that it has, Sasuke bets that it hasn’t.
On the way home, Sasuke is ambushed and attacked by Boruto, who fails miserably and is tripped over instead. Amazed at Sasuke’s abilities, Boruto asks him to take him on as his disciple. Unimpressed, Sasuke asks him if he can make a Rasengan and tells him to find him again only when he can.
This pushes Boruto to quickly master the Rasengan from Konohamaru and not long after, he returns to Sasuke and shows him his tiny Rasengan. Noting that it is way smaller than what it’s supposed to be, Boruto gets frustrated and flings it at a tree, dismayed at how pathetic it is. He then runs off and Sarada, who had been watching the whole time, approaches her father and speaks on Boruto’s behalf to get him to accept him as his disciple. To which, Sasuke replies that he never said he wouldn’t take on Boruto.
And so Sasuke begins to train Boruto for the Chunin Exams and tells him a little about Naruto back when he was he was a kid when Boruto asks him about Naruto’s weaknesses. Team Konohamaru successfully makes it through Rounds One and Two of the exams (with a little cheating from Boruto) and proud of his son, Naruto visits Boruto in his room and personally congratulates him.
In Round Three of the Chunin Exams, the Genins are randomly paired off for a face-off and it eventually boils down to Boruto vs Shikamaru and Temari’s son, Shikadai. An exciting battle ensues but Shikadai manages to get the upper hand and corners Boruto into giving up. Unwilling to lose while his father is watching, Boruto makes use of his Kote once again, making Shikadai surrender and him the winner. (Notice in the GIF that Boruto uses the Gentle Fist technique inherited from his mother)
Suspecting something is amiss, Naruto does a check on Boruto’s wrist and discovers the Kote hidden there. Immediately, he disqualifies his own son from the exams and declares Shikadai the winner instead. The family drama isn’t over yet but it doesn’t last long due to the sudden appearance of Otsutsuki Momoshiki and Kinshiki, the greater threat who intend to gather Kaguya’s scattered chakra and cultivate them into pills so that upon consumption, they would be granted eternal youth and enhanced powers.
A battle ensues, causing wreckage to the amphitheatre and forcing the spectators to evacuate. Realising that their target is himself, Naruto asks Sasuke to protect Sarada and Boruto while he stops their attacks and is ultimately captured.
Boruto wakes up in hospital and suddenly it hits him that his father is gone. In despair, he flees to the Hokage’s office and looks at the various portraits of the various Hokage. There, he finds the old and tattered jacket of Naruto’s and puts it on. Looking at himself in the mirror, he declares himself to be uncool. Appearing behind him, Sasuke agrees and asks him what he’s going to do about it. He tells Boruto that Naruto is still alive and together with the four other Kage, they travel to the dimension that Naruto is held captive in.
The four Kage manage to immobilise Kinshiki and with the combined strength of Naruto and Sasuke, manage to subdue Momoshiki in an epic battle. However, the battle becomes far from over when Katasuke appears, having jumped through the portal at the last minute and shoots Momoshiki with ninjutsu in an attempt to capture him. In an instant, the villain absorbs the ninjutsu, uses the shadow jutsu to trap the four Kage and impales Naruto with chakra rods.
All hope is seemingly lost, until Momoshiki is hit with Boruto’s Rasengan as instructed by Sasuke, which throws him off-guard and releases the four Kage from the shadow jutsu. To perform the final blow, Naruto asks Boruto to make a Rasengan and surprises him by adding enormous power and size to it. With help from Sasuke as a diversion, Boruto manages to hit Momoshiki with the Rasengan, effectively destroying him.
With the threat finally over and obliterated, Sasuke and Naruto sit next to each other, with Sasuke commenting that he’d won the bet. The shinobi world is at peace once again and the old generation looks to the new generation for them to pave a future for themselves.
As usual, that recap took FOREVER. Let’s get straight down to my opinion on it:
I absolutely LOVED Boruto: Naruto the Movie. There was just so much to it that could be expanded and explored but I guess not everything is meant to be fleshed out and revealed in a mere 95 mins huh.
Storyline-wise, this movie was a lot better than The Last and it probably had to do with the introduction of the new generation of shinobi. Kishimoto just had to make it such that Boruto was different from Naruto in almost every aspect apart from his looks – smart, possesses considerable prodigious skill, has a family, yet takes them for granted.
BUT that’s exactly where the interest is drawn to. If Boruto was a good boy and dumb but likeable as the Hokage’s son, things wouldn’t be so interesting and there wouldn’t be a story at all. Boruto: Naruto the Movie shows us that despite the many strong differences between Naruto and his son, both are still ultimately the same in that they both longed for attention and recognition from the people they wanted it most from. In Naruto’s case, it is the villagers and in Boruto’s case, because his father outshines him and is the Hokage whom everyone looks up to, it is from Naruto.
The focus on Naruto and Boruto’s relationship from strained, to even more strained, to reparation and reconciliation was wonderfully delivered as we saw how Boruto was suddenly hit with the realisation that he could very easily end up like Naruto himself without a father when Naruto put himself on the frontline and told Sasuke to look after him and Sarada. His transition from not being understanding and appreciative comes like a slap to his face and right after that when he is told that Naruto was still alive, he resolves to set things right and bring him back. I’ll admit that I nearly teared up when Naruto added more power and size to Boruto’s tiny Rasengan and this montage of the Rasengan’s history came onto the screen.
The fight scenes were amazing, as usual. I can never get tired of watching the Naruto and Sasuke combination fights with all its extremely badass background music and sound effects kicking up my adrenaline a hundred miles per hour. The scene whereby the two stood side by side again to fight Momoshiki particularly struck a chord within me and I remembered the time back when they stood together in the exact same way before they fought with Madara. Anyone else remembers that particular scene when looking at this screenshot above?
Also, I’m really glad that they brought Sasuke back into action because everyone really missed him in The Last. Here in this movie, we got to see Sasuke’s softer side, which he shows to Sarada, Boruto and Naruto. I absolutely adored the way Sarada addressed Sasuke, calling him “Papa”, watching him protect her and training Boruto as though he was his own son. We never could’ve imagined that our cold-blooded world criminal could become such a softie, could we?
It totally warmed my heart to see the new generation of shinobi and I was completely riveted by Shikadai, who seems to have almost all the same characteristics as Shikamaru but has his mother’s eyes and blunt way of speech. This kid is definitely one freaking genius because both Shikamaru and Temari are brilliant analysts and strategists.
Lastly, I’m glad that the movie ended with still some questions left unanswered. THIS MEANS THAT THE NARUTO SERIES ISN’T OVER YET. With that questionable post-credits scene begging the question of who Mitsuki’s mother is and Sasuke and Sakura’s love story still in the dark (yes, we still want to know exactly HOW Sakura managed to snag Sasuke in the end), the series is far from over.
What if the one dearest to you suddenly passed away in a tragic accident? And what if you didn’t have a chance to say the most important things you would have wanted to say to that person?
How would you ever be able to move on and forgive yourself?
Hey guys! Welcome back! I’ll be doing a film review today, on a film that quite grabbed my attention a while back. People online have been saying that this film was really sad and good so I had it bookmarked on my anime list but didn’t watch it immediately because I wasn’t ecstatic to be in the sad emotional mood haha. And yes, the story is pretty sad and heartbreaking.
So anyway, the film is rather short (for a film), timed at around an hour or so and is entitled Hal. Its characters were designed by Sakisaka Io, the mangaka of Ao Haru Ride and Strobe Edge and their voice actors are fantastic, contributing to a world that you can be absorbed into to fully appreciate.
So let’s go into the film:
The story starts off with the explosion of a plane in the sky that has just taken off. Locals on the ground look up in horror as the tragedy takes it course and an old man collapses to the ground after receiving and reading a notification on his phone.
We’re told that Hal has died and that because of that, Kurumi is unable to eat, sleep or cry. In despair, the old man, most probably the grandfather of either Kurumi or Hal tells his robot, Q01 to “save that child”.
And so Q01 becomes Hal and goes on his way to Kurumi and the original Hal’s house. As a robot, Hal doesn’t know what it means to “feel” and makes his way to the house, observing his surroundings and the people around him. His mission now is to help Kurumi feel what it’s like to live again and is given a parting gift from his care centre doctor: a Rubik’s cube that once belonged to Hal.
When Q01 Hal reaches the home of Kurumi and Hal, he tries to talk to her and introduces himself to her. However, Kurumi is closed off to the world and without saying much, clearly indicates to him that she wants to be left alone. Q01 Hal gets the point and leaves but sticks around to clean and tidy up the house a little. While cleaning, he comes upon the Rubik’s cube again and decides to solve it to decipher the messages written on each side. He then cooks a meal for Kurumi, leaves it outside her room and tells her that he would return the next day.
Upon returning the following day, Q01 Hal greets Kurumi and discovers that the food he’d left outside her room was left untouched. Kindly, he asks her if there’s anything she desires and goes out into the streets to do some shopping. On the way, he interacts with other people and gets the help of little kids to help him solve another side of the Rubik’s cube. The message on the side of the Rubik’s cube that the kids solve state: “I want a pet giraffe” and so Q01 Hal goes in search of a giraffe that he can bring back (haha so cute!)
He tries to take back a decorative giraffe that belongs to an old man but fails after getting scolded by him and relates the story to his doctor and some old ladies. The doctor states that the giraffe was listed as $0 not because it was of no value but because it was priceless. Q01 Hal interacts with the old ladies in the centre and gets the help from one of them to call up the owner of the decorative giraffe to let it go. The owner accepts and Q01 Hal and the doctor go over to carry it to Kurumi’s house.
When Kurumi sees that Q01 Hal had brought back a pet giraffe, she leaves a note by the door with the words “Thank you robot Hal”, making him surprised and glad. The doctor also encourages him, telling him that he did good. From then on, Q01 Hal continues to solve the rest of the Rubik’s cube sides and go about his daily routine of looking after Kurumi.
One day, while doing grocery shopping, he bumps into one of Hal’s friends Ryu, who greets him as though he was never gone (or rather, never died…) but he doesn’t stick around for long before he is chased by two men in white suits and is forced to run to escape from them.
When Q01 Hal returns to Kurumi’s house, he asks her if Hal ever abused her, seeing as the Rubik’s cube newly solved side reveals Kurumi’s wish for Hal to stop using violence. She reveals that she and Hal had a fight before and then shows him flashback memories of the fight projected on a screen. When the memories end, Kurumi states, “If only human emotions could be displayed like data” and Q01 Hal apologises to her for hurting her feelings and failing to understand her more. But Kurumi admits that she was at fault too for failing to fully understand Hal’s grievances.
Q01 Hal manages to solve another side of the Rubik’s cube with help from the centre’s old ladies and this time, Kurumi’s wish is to go to a festival in a yukata. In order to obtain yukatas, Q01 Hal goes to visit Kurumi’s grandfather according to instructions given to him by his doctor. Here, we see that the old man from the beginning of the story was in fact, Kurumi’s grandfather and he gives two sets of yukata to Q01 Hal, one for Kurumi and the other for himself, one that Kurumi had made for Hal.
Q01 Hal invites Kurumi to go to the festival with him and after apologising to him for not being able to understand him, she agrees to his invitation. On the day of the festival, Kurumi spots a few Rubik’s cubes on the table and decides to write a message on one of its unused sides.
Kurumi and Q01 Hal then go on their festival date doing festival things and end up playing at the river. It is then Ryu appears with two others and tells Q01 Hal that they made a huge loss of late and proposes that they cash Kurumi in to regain what they had lost. Angered, Kurumi pushes Ryu into the river and yells for Q01 Hal to run.
A chase ensues and rain begins to fall from the sky as the day shifts into night. While running on some wooden planks of a house, Kurumi falls through them and into the river below. Q01 Hal tries to save her but is pounced on by Ryu, who had caught up. Ryu punches Q01 Hal, yelling at him to wake up and to try and remember. Q01 Hal begins to recall his memories and we’re taken back to the fight Hal and Kurumi had before the flight took off.
In the flashback, Kurumi stands up and angrily takes her luggage in hand and heads for the departure gate of the fated plane and we realise in horror that the one who died, was in fact Kurumi.
MY THOUGHTS
*spoilers included, read at your own discretion*
Even though I knew that Hal was going to be a sad, tragic story with a plot twist (since everyone said so), I totally failed to notice all the tiny hints that were being dropped throughout the show and was completely stunned when the plot twist was revealed. Right after the plot twist was revealed, I was wondering to myself why didn’t I see it coming?? and then realised how very clever and vague the story had been all along, right from the start.
It isn’t the end for Hal after he realises that Kurumi was already dead and he struggles to come to terms with reality for a while after that. He has a little talk with Kurumi’s grandfather, who tells him that the dead will always be with them and that he often talks to them. In the end, we see Hal eating a meal by himself at home and after taking a bite, he says to Kurumi that the food is delicious.
BUT DON’T GO AWAY AFTER THE CREDITS ROLL because right after that, there’s a little scene that shows us Kurumi’s Rubik’s cube pile. And the shot zooms in for us to see the message that Q01 Kurumi had written on the day of the festival, making us all teary-eyed.
Honestly, that last bit was a killer, it was so touching.
Overall, I really enjoyed watching Hal even though I didn’t know where the story was going half the time and just went along with it. But because I did, I got to feel the full impact of feels the people behind Hal intended their audience to feel. Yes, it’s a tragic story but I think that it addresses a very real situation in which a loved one dies and the ones left behind are left emotionally shattered. And finding the will to live again is something that deserves a whole lot of praise to me. Well done production team 🙂
As for the robot therapy used in the story whereby a robot takes the place of the dead loved one, I would like to know your thoughts on it. Would you use robot therapy yourself? What do you think are the pros and cons of such a method? Is it of more good than bad on the already traumatised loved one or the other way around? Let me know what you think on this!
Character likeability / Character background: 8/10 (Despite feeling completely lost as to who the characters are, details on them are carefully and wonderfully laid out and unfolded as the story goes by like a jigsaw puzzle)
Overall story: 8/10 (It was cleverly thought out, had great animation – nice work choosing Sakisaka Io! – and a brilliant soundtrack that greatly contributed to the mood of the story)
Re-watchability: 8/10 (Although it’s sad and a little slow-paced, it’s touching and I wouldn’t mind re-watching Hal again to better understand the story now that I can watch it from a different perspective)
Welcome back to another review post! This review has taken quite a while to be up so it shan’t be delayed any longer. (Ugh I just realised that WordPress changed the interface of writing a new post and I can’t go back to using the old version. I really preferred the old version though)
So it’s been a while since The Last: Naruto the Movie ended its screening in the cinemas now and this review might be off its timeliness but I’m going to write it anyway because I really loved the movie and would like to share my opinions with you guys.
The Last: Naruto the Movie had pretty pricey tickets to view it but considering that I managed to bag two of the four premium gifts handed out to its moviegoers, I shan’t complain. I was literally over the moon when I got my hands on the movie poster that I had wanted so much. Oh yeah I should also bear in mind that it isn’t very good to watch a movie on the last day of its screening – and its last screening at that. You hope that the cinema wouldn’t be so filled up and crowded because it’s the last day but on the contrary, the cinema was 3/4 full. It was terrible to be surrounded by so many noisy fangirls who wouldn’t stop talking throughout the show and have your seat being kicked for about half the show by some kid sitting behind you who probably doesn’t understand anything about the show. Oh well to carry on reading my rant about my The Last: Naruto the Movie experience you can click here.
So back to the review!
THE STORY:
The Last: Naruto the Movie is a love story, as Kishimoto Masashi intended it to be. It takes place between the last two chapters of the manga and tells the story of Naruto and Hinata and how he eventually reciprocates her feelings which eventually culminates in their marriage. The story starts off by showing us how Hinata first began to have feelings towards Naruto back when they were children when he defended her from three bullies. In doing so, the red scarf that he wore was destroyed and he lets Hinata keep it since it has been ruined.
The scene shifts back to present day where Naruto is now considered to be the village’s hero and idol to the juniors. Hinata knits a red scarf, reminiscent of his old one to give to him along with her confession. However, when she sees three young girls surrounding him all the while fawning over him, she decides not to do so and leaves. She ends up in front of Naruto’s house and practices her confession. When Naruto returns home, she notices that he’s already wearing a scarf and assumes that it was a present given to him by one of his fangirls. Upset, she runs off and ends up at the playground, where she encounters a mysterious man named Otsutsuki Toneri who claims that he has come for her and renders her unconscious.
Naruto sees Hinata being kidnapped and immediately gives chase. A fight ensues and he manages to retrieve Hinata but in the midst of the fight, Hinata’s scarf for Naruto gets ruined. The two witness a meteor come crashing down just outside Konoha. It is later revealed that pieces of the moon are falling out of orbit down on to Earth and if nothing is done soon, the moon itself will break apart and come crashing down, killing all life on it.
Kakashi, as the Sixth Hokage gives Naruto, Sai, Shikamaru, Sakura and Hinata a mission to rescue Hyuuga Hinabi, Hinata’s sister who was kidnapped by Toneri. The team sets off to track down Toneri’s location and throughout their journey, Naruto learns more of Hinata’s feelings for him and how they go way back from when they were children. Realising his feelings for her, as well as her intentions to give him a scarf, he stops wearing his own. During their search for Toneri, Naruto and Hinata encounter the man himself once again who proposes to Hinata for a second time. Hinata rejects the proposal and tells Toneri to return her her sister so Toneri gives her a deal: he would spare both her and Hanabi and eventually return Hanabi her Byakugan if she accepts his proposal. He tells her that he will return again to hear her answer before he gets defeated by Naruto and is revealed to be a puppet.
The team later finds out that the destruction of the moon has been orchestrated by Toneri and Hinata finds out that Toneri has misinterpreted Hamura’s will and that only she can stop him and destroy the Tenseigan. When Toneri comes for her a third time, she willingly goes with him despite it being in front of Naruto to save Hanabi. She leaves Naruto with a new red scarf that she had knitted for him but Naruto refuses to let her go without putting up a fight. The impact of the fight destroys a massive part of the moon, as well as Hinata’s scarf again and Naruto is knocked out.
Naruto falls into depression over losing Hinata but manages to get back up with his resolve to save her and Hanabi with encouragement from Sai, Shikamaru and Sakura. The four invade Toneri’s moon base and quickly split up to do different tasks: one to find Hanabi and the other to save Hinata.
Both teams succeed in their tasks and Hinata together with Naruto manages to destroy the Tenseigan energy vessel. However things are not over yet as Toneri manages to unlock the Tenseigan. He engages Naruto into battle and a huge epic fight ensues. Back on Earth, the ninjas are holding up the best they can and A has revealed that he has in his possession a super-powered weapon that he can use to blow up the moon. Just before he can fire it against the other Kages will, they are informed that Kurama is writing on the surface of the moon and that what he has written is the symbol for “Mission Completed”.
With danger averted, Sai, Shikamaru, Sakura, Hinata and Naruto have saved the planet. The movie then shows us shots of Naruto and Hinata’s wedding, as well as a post-credits scene of Naruto, Hinata and their two children playing in the snow.
Okay so that took way longer that it should have heheh. Without further ado, let’s move on to my thoughts on the movie.
There’s so much good in this movie, really. If you love Naruto and you’re a Naruhina fan, you’ll simply love this story because
1. It’s the first and only film to be an official part of the canon Naruto storyline
2. This story is all about Naruhina and their love story. They’re the stars of the show, really.
As for the storyline, no matter how incredulous and cheesy it might sound, like how some guy just shows up from nowhere (Otsutsuki Toneri) suddenly wants the power of the Byakugan and wants to marry the Byakugan Princess on top of that and destroy Earth, it is all forgiven and overlooked because why? Because I get to see more of Naruto and Hinata as well as the rest of the Naruto cast and be once again immersed into its ninja world.
The supporting characters that return in this movie are fantastic and it’s great to see them all back. What I especially love about this movie are the quirks from them, especially Sai and Shikamaru – have those two been polishing up their sarcasm during the timeskip? There were so many comical scenes throughout the movie and it’s great to see that the movie managed to strike a balance between the romance, action and comical scenes, making it a very all-rounded show for people of all ages to watch (though if you know nuts about the Naruto universe there’s not much point in watching, really).
As for the fighting scenes, they were simply amazing. Whenever a fight came up on screen, there was this wow factor about it that would leave me mesmerised by it and in awe. Maybe I was just stunned and captured because it was my first time seeing Naruto so powerful, creating and throwing orange coloured Rasengans (yes, I haven’t reached the part in the anime where he gets Kurama’s friendship and joins the war on a larger scale). I also think the audio was amazing, the sound effects were appropriately toned to create the effect of explosions and impact. In fact, there was one explosion that was so loud and screeching that the girl sitting next to me actually covered her ears because it was that loud.
Many people were talking about Sasuke and his appearance in the movie so I was looking forward to seeing him and his role in The Last but let me tell you, Sasuke’s role in the movie is almost a joke. The poor guy had only three appearances in the movie, two of which were less than three seconds and the third being less than 10 seconds with only one line about him protecting Konoha if Naruto isn’t there. So many moviegoers were moaning about Sasuke’s pathetic movie appearance hahaha! Oh well I really would’ve wanted to see more of Sasuke and Sakura’s relationship and how that worked out too but then The Last: Naruto the Movie wouldn’t be a Naruhina movie, as it was intended to be.
I enjoyed watching the movie immensely and I think everyone else did too, because everyone in the cinema stayed till the very end. It was as though the wedding scenes weren’t enough and we wanted something more. Sure enough, we were rewarded for our patience and out came the really sweet and adorable post-credits scene of the Uzumaki family having fun in the snow.
As usual, here’s my overall rating for the show: 9/10
And rewatchability: 10/10
What did you guys think of The Last: Naruto the Movie? Which were your favourite parts and why? Let me know in the comments below! I can’t wait for June/July for the movie to be released; waiting for torrents for Japanese movies are always agonising because they like to drag out their DVD release, they do. Let’s help each other out where we can download it as soon as it’s out okay! ^^
Welcome back to my blog! I’m going to catch up on some things that I’ve been reading/watching and it’s going to take a while so bear with me.
A few weeks ago, I had finally decided to watch L-DK and because it had been so long since I last read the manga (because the updates are really slow), I’d forgotten the flow of the story up till its latest chapter. The movie seemed somewhat disconnected to me so after completing the movie, I went to re-read L-DK‘s manga again. It was then I realised that as usual, not all the significant scenes in the movie were the same as the ones in the manga.
Which, like DUH. What was I expecting right?
Although somewhat slow-paced with deliberated acting, I found the movie likeable and therefore passable. Just slightly. The movie managed to capture some of the significant moments in the manga as well as even tweak some of them to make them more surprising and adorable. Like there’s this scene whereby Aoi and Shuusei go grocery shopping and upon walking up the long flight of stairs to their apartment, they play scissors-paper-stone to see who gets to walk up ahead a few steps free-handed while the other has to carry all the grocery bags.
And so the story:
Spoilers ahead, if you haven’t watched the movie yet!
Girls squeal and spill into crowds as a guy walks past them. No one does anything further except one girl who steps out from the crowd and yells to the guy a confession: “I like you!”
The girl is Shibuya Moe (Okamoto Rei), our protagonist’s best friend and she waits with bated breath as the guy turns around. Named by the students of the school “The school’s prince”, Shuusei Kugayama (Yamazaki Kento) turns around to face her – only to give her a cold, flat-out rejection. Watching her friend being humiliated in front of all the girls and angry at Shuusei, Nishimori Aoi (Goriki Ayame) corners the school’s prince and confronts him about it.
Shuusei is cold and indifferent about it and rouses her ire even further by teasing her. Aoi pushes him backwards in her anger and Shuusei falls down the stairs. To make up for her actions, she is forced to carry him back home piggy-back style, clean up his room as well as cook for him. On the way home, she is shocked to find out that he is in fact, her new neighbour that had just moved in.
While cooking, Shuusei inadvertently causes Aoi to panic, resulting in her messing up her cooking and causing a pan-fire, activating the room’s sprinklers. With the room completely drenched and the furnishings of the room needing repair or replacement, Shuusei has to move out and he chooses to room in with Aoi.
And so their lives living together begins.
Aoi tries her best to live as she normally does but Shuusei’s go-at-my-own-pace way of living infuriates her and she more or less winds up following his pace. He throws her into embarrassing and somewhat hilarious situations for his own personal amusement such as inviting a friend home – to Aoi’s home – unannounced. In her haste, she hides under blankets and Shuusei discovers her there. To simply disturb and annoy her, he moves over to the blankets and sits right on top of her HAHA.
Even though Shuusei’s presence drives Aoi crazy, she realises that he is in fact, kind-hearted and child-like. Probably one of the sweetest and most significant scenes in this movie is the scene whereby there’s a thunderstorm at night and Aoi is unable to sleep. During the thunderstorm, Shuusei finds out that Aoi is afraid of thunder and in an unexpected move, offers his hand to her under the curtain divider. Hesitant at first, Aoi ends up taking his hand when the sky thunders and it helps her to get through the night.
While all of this is going on, Aoi meets Shuusei’s older brother Soju and his ex-girlfriend Mizuno Satsuki. Both characters prove to be of no help to Shuusei and Aoi’s relationship as Soju makes suggestive moves on Aoi and Satsuki wastes no time sizing Aoi up, telling her that Shuusei is hers. She is an immediate unlikeable character and we all know it.
Aoi finds herself falling in love with Shuusei slowly day by day. Wanting to get to know him better, she probes him with questions that he doesn’t wish to answer. Aoi turns to Soju, who takes advantage of her and kisses her, taking away her first kiss.
Shuusei learns that his brother had kissed Aoi and in a fit of rage, punches him. He finds Aoi on top of a hill sobbing alone and comforts her, telling her that his brother’s kiss won’t count anymore because he says so. And then he gives her a kiss of his own.
Thereafter, Aoi and Shuusei’s relationship seems to improve but something also seems to be holding him back. When he comes home late to see a table spread full of dinner dishes on his birthday yet treats it like it’s nothing, Aoi becomes affected and upset. Annoyed with her behaviour, Shuusei stops eating and asks her what the problem is. She replies with tears in her eyes that she just wants him to smile.
He advances on her, pushing her down and Aoi struggles against him. Seeing her cry, he gets off her and starts to pack his things. He leaves the house without any explanation into the pouring rain.
Aoi chases after him in the rain and hugging him from behind, confesses that she loves him. Shuusei rejects her, telling her that he doesn’t feel the same and that he’s sorry. He also tells her that even though they were together for a short time, it was fun and he was glad to have met her. Saying that it’s his fault for causing her to be hurt, he adds that he cannot keep his promise to see the Tanabata fireworks with her – a promise that he had previously made to her on a date. Aoi watches as he walks away from her, heartbroken.
Fast-forward all the drama and brooding >>>
It’s the night of the Tanabata fireworks and Aoi is pushed into attending it with Sanjo Wataru, a neighbour who has taken a fancy to her. Moe and Shuusei’s friend, Sato Ryosuke search for Shuusei and when they find him, they push him to go to the Tanabata fireworks and get Aoi back. They present to him the necklace that he’d given Aoi, saying that they were the ones who pushed Aoi to go to the fireworks with Sanjo because if she didn’t go, she’d be stuck to her one-sided love for him.
Shuusei takes the necklace and runs out of the apartment, taking Ryosuke’s scooter to drive to the fireworks. When he’s nearing the location of the fireworks, he get blocked by the police who are trying to control the traffic flow. Abandoning the scooter, Shuusei gets off and starts to go on foot, running through the crowds yelling for Aoi. Eventually, he catches her attention and the two meet again. Shuusei apologises to her and admits that he loves her, asking her to be his girlfriend. Aoi accepts and they kiss under the last burst of fireworks.
I enjoyed watching L-DK in spite of all its slow and unnecessary scenes. It was sweet and I enjoyed Yamazaki Kento’s performance as Kugayama Shuusei – to me, it was a spot on portrayal of the cold-blooded indifferent prince. Although I know that the acting is usually exaggerated in Japanese movies, I felt that Goriki Ayame’s acting was way too exaggerated. I prefer acting to be natural, as though it was really what the character would do, behave and say. Honestly, I didn’t enjoy watching Ayame act as Aoi at all. To me, Aoi is a conservative, kind-hearted girl who in my mind, is more demure than what Ayame portrayed her to be.
Other issues I have with L-DK include Soju, Satsuki and Sanjo Wataru.
Soju’s painted out to be some creepy brother who does photography as a job and kisses Aoi without any qualms – stealing her first kiss. He’s in fact, portrayed to me as a bastard and a character that is totally unlikeable. He should have been given more background for viewers to understand who he is and his real motives. I feel that if I hadn’t read the manga, and just watched the movie, I would be hating Soju for no full proper reason right now. Everyone has a reason behind their actions.
From the time Satsuki is introduced to us, she passes off as an arrogant bitch who can’t just let go of her ex-boyfriend. Not much is told about her and Shuusei’s past and even the story woven out for us about her waiting for him in the cold for hours on Christmas night is a pitiful one. Shuusei making a promise to Satsuki to always be by her side until she finds her happiness just because she nearly died – through no fault of his – is such a lousy reason to be stuck to her. It is such a lousy backstory and reason for Shuusei to keep that I find myself rolling my eyes. Halfway through the story, Satsuki also mysteriously disappears from the movie. It’s strange, because up till then, she was so adamant about keeping Shuusei with her and being with him. Did she suddenly change her mind about him halfway through the movie? *shrugs*
Sanjo is introduced as a worker at a grocery shop who loves Aoi from far. His role is similar to that of the nice big brother and he doesn’t pose much of a threat to Shuusei on taking Aoi from him. In fact, Shuusei seems unfazed by his threats every time – because he doesn’t even make any drastic moves to signal to Shuusei that hey, I’m being serious here about taking her. There’s so much more to Sanjo that the movie could have worked on, it seems as though they have sadly shortchanged him as a character.
I highly recommend everyone to read the manga first before watching its live-action adaptation because many questions were not answered in the latter. Honestly, you’d be lost halfway through the movie, bored of several unnecessary scenes and the exaggerated acting when they could have been used as scenes to build up the foundation of the story as well as the characters. The only thing you’d want to look out for in this movie is probably only Yamazaki Kento as Shuusei and Akiyoshi Nakao as his good friend Sato Ryosuke, who wasn’t too bad acting in the “good friend” role.
I don’t think I’d want to watch L-DK any time soon but I will, if it ever crosses my mind again.
So I’m back to deliver to you guys my promised review of Laputa: Castle in the Sky. As I wrote before in my preview, this film is by Hayao Miyazaki and its soundtrack – I’ll say it again – by the genius Joe Hisaishi.
Although I’ve already said most of my opinion about the show in my preview, I’m going to write a fuller review of the film for more depth and analysis about the show.
Laputa: Castle in the Sky was released in 1986 and its a pretty long show, exceeding 2 hours. The animation is beautiful too, which is an amazing feat, considering that this was done in the 1980s. I don’t know what made me want to watch this old film because I’d actually been putting it off for so long. Originally, I had my doubts about watching such a show even though its a Miyazaki work because I was worried that the animation wouldn’t be that good. Turns out that the animation didn’t differ very much from that of My Neighbour Totoro, which was released in 1988. On top of that, I’d read many comments from people online praising Laputa: Castle in the Sky and Nausicaa before. Hmm should I watch Nausicaa too?
So anyway, on Thursday I decided that I’d watch a Miyazaki film and I had two on the top of my list: Laputa and Ponyo. I chose the former and watched it on my family’s desktop. My mother came to join me a while afterwards; she loves Miyazaki’s works too.
The story had a relatively simple story line. It was mainly about the quest to find the mysterious floating castle called Laputa. It was considered a legend because no one had been able to find it and it was rumoured to contain many treasures. Those two added up together made the flying castle mysterious and desirable. And we all know how people love to pursue mysteries thanks to curiosity and intrigue.
The story starts off with a gang of pirates attacking an airship. A young girl sees them coming and escapes out of her room, taking a crystal on a necklace with her from her captor. As she’s discovered, she tries to avoid her pursuers but she loses her grip on the airship and falls through the sky. A young boy called Pazu, who works with miners on the ground spots a figure falling from the sky and runs towards it. He discovers that it is a human girl and that she is in fact, floating down towards the ground instead of actually falling. He takes her to his home and befriends her.
The girl tells Pazu that her name is Sheeta and both of them reveal to each other that they are both orphans. Sheeta later realises that her pursuers are still after her and the two flee into the town. They are both later pursued by two different parties: the gang of pirates and the army who follow the orders of her former captor, Colonel Muska.
Their goal is to obtain the crystal around Sheeta’s neck (and Sheeta herself in Muska’s case) as they claim that the crystal is the key to lead them to Laputa. Sheeta reveals to Pazu her real name, feeling guilty that she got him messed up in all this – Lucita Toel Ul Laputa – revealing that she is a princess of the legendary Laputa. Pazu and Sheeta eventually get caught by Muska and are thrown into a fortress prison of some sort into separate rooms. Pazu is released in an effort to protect him by Sheeta as she tells him to forget all about Laputa and to leave. He runs back home, upset and confused but then discovers the gang of pirates hiding out in his home. The leader of the pirates, Dola has him tied up and questioned and after that, prepares to leave to follow Muska’s airship. Pazu pleads with her to take him along so he can save Sheeta whom he realises did what she did to protect him. He tells Dola that he doesn’t want the treasure of Laputa and that all he wants is to save Sheeta – that gets Dola thinking and she cuts him free, taking him along with her.
Pazu, Dola and her gang of pirates successfully rescue Sheeta from a Laputan robot that was kept in the fortress’ dungeon and Muska’s army after much difficulty and the two kids are taken in by the pirates aboard their airship in exchange for their work. Pazu is sent to work with the engineer while Sheeta is sent to work in the kitchen. I have to say, the scene whereby all of Dola’s pirate boys enter the kitchen offering their help to Sheeta is just plain hilarious. Sheeta also points out to Dola the direction of Laputa, as shown by her crystal earlier on when she unknowingly activated it with a spell.
At the same time, Muska and his army are on their way to find Laputa, guided by the crystal that Sheeta had dropped earlier on. The two parties are on a race to find the legendary flying castle and they encounter each other at night, Muska’s troupe trying to take out Dola’s with artillery.
The two parties eventually run into a thunderstorm and are about to turn back when Pazu realises that this thunderstorm, together with the huge cloud in front of them could possibly be Laputa itself. Pazu and Sheeta, in the glider brave the thunderstorm in the cloud and end up on the flying castle’s grounds. Laputa is a beautiful island, full of greenery and ancient architecture. The two discover a garden with many robots similar to the one they had encountered on the ground and decide to leave the garden undisturbed.
However, they are not alone; Dola’s gang as well as Muska’s troupe had also made it into Laputa, Muska capturing the pirates almost immediately and holding them captive while his men raid Laputa’s grounds for treasure. Seeing the pirates captured, Pazu and Sheeta set out to free them but they are quickly discovered, Muska capturing Sheeta and taking her away into a futuristic part of the castle, using her crystal to manipulate the walls of the castle underground.
Pazu manages to sneak up to Dola through the underground and slips her a knife to cut her loose. But before that, one of the soldiers throw a grenade into the entrance that Pazu entered. The explosion causes the spot where Dola was sitting to jump with smoke even spewing out from the brick underneath her. Her pirates hilariously give her knowing looks and she glares back at them saying that it wasn’t her XD In return, Dola passes him a huge shotgun (canon?) plus a few bullets to carry on with his rescue. In a moment of hilarity, Dola remarks that the kid had grown into a man.
Pazu goes to find Sheeta by squeezing his way through holes and blasting walls with his new shotgun/canon while Muska, who’d revealed himself to be a Laputan too, eliminates his army by dumping them out, making them fall through the sky to their deaths. Calling himself the new ruler of Laputa, Muska turns his back on his army and terrorises them. Seeing Muska terrorising everyone around him, Sheeta makes a grab for the crystal and runs. She manages to pass it to Pazu through a narrow hole in a wall before she gets captured by Muska yet again. Pazu blasts the wall with his weapon and requests to the villain that he be allowed to talk to Sheeta.
Upon reaching her, he tells her to tell him the destruction spell, the one that would destroy everything. She does and together, they recite the spell, destroying most of Laputa’s futuristic underground. The two are saved by Laputa’s tree roots and manage to find the glider they used before to leave the castle. They meet Dola and her pirates, who had managed to escape too and share a brief reunion.
The movie ends off with Pazu and Sheeta parting ways with Dola and her pirates, flying off on the glider to Gondoa, a place where Pazu had promised to take Sheeta to previously and the castle Laputa still flying with the robots tending to its garden.
I found the idea of Laputa intriguing – a flying castle rumoured to have tons of treasures and some kind of ancient magic in its underground. The idea of being in such a place would be wonderful as such a place is so mysterious. However as we and the characters quickly find out, we realise that the power and potential of Laputa was too great for man to handle. With all its riches, treasures and power that it had, Laputa planted greed in people who selfishly wanted all these for themselves. It’s no wonder that Laputa ended up abandoned by its own inhabitants, who probably felt that its rulers could never possibly be good with such power in his/her hands as greed would overwhelm them.
This point of greed in the story was consistently brought up in the whole show from the beginning till the end: everyone basically went after Sheeta and her crystal for majority of the show because of the power the crystal had within it. It was the greed and desire for power that pushed most of the characters and got the story going and I like that this was a consistent theme throughout the story, in a way somewhat emphasising how greed can make people look so ugly. On the other hand, Pazu was the opposite of all these greedy people – when he told Dola that he didn’t want any of Laputa’s treasures but only Sheeta’s safety, Dola was taken aback and that got her to reconsider bringing him along. She’d probably never seen such a pure-hearted, sincere person like him before who didn’t want anything for himself, but instead for someone else (in this case, Sheeta’s safety). A brilliant theme portrayed in the story.
I also liked the development of Pazu in the story. When we first see this kid, he’s just a kid who helped out in the mines but once he met Sheeta and decided that he’d protect her, he did everything he could to do so. He never once hesitated when it came to saving his princess and I like that about him – his determination and dedication when it comes to protecting the one person important to him because he has no one else close to him (remember that he’s an orphan?). I felt that truly, like what Dola has remarked, by the end of the show that he had grown into a man.
Lastly, I liked how Dola and her pirates surprisingly ended up revealing their good sides. Although still driven by greed for Laputa’s treasure, Dola and her gang visibly softened up with the presence of Pazu and Sheeta. Seeing the two brave and sincere with their words and actions, Dola and her gang developed affections for the two, bringing out a more humane side to them as compared to when we first saw them in their first appearance in the show.
This story even shows Laputa flying off at the end credits with just the main castle and the tree at its core supporting it, well, together with the huge volucite crystal. I think it’s a subtle hint to us that the tree is the one with life, making Laputa magical and sustainable by itself even without its inhabitants.
Laputa: Castle in the Sky was immensely enjoyable to watch and nerve-wracking at some points. I can now see why everyone who watched it liked it so much and praised it so highly. As I mentioned in my preview too, this is definitely one of the funnier Miyazaki works as compared to others which are more serious. Many thanks to the wonderful Hayao Miyazaki who could think up of such an amazing story with amazing themes portrayed and Joe Hisaishi who made the music suit the story so fittingly well. A standing ovation to you two brilliant geniuses who will never be forgotten in history.
Sorry I’ve been missing in action for um the last 2 weeks, I guess? I recently started working and it hasn’t been easy on me. I guess for an introverted person who likes to do things my way at my own pace, it’s been really hard and there have been times whereby I really felt like breaking down and felt really miserable. But I don’t have a choice if I want to complete my education so. Five more months into this and I’m out of here into freedom again.
I just need to find some kind of motivation for me every week to keep going.
So yeah, back to the review.
I’m glad to finally be back here at my laptop typing a review once more. It feel so much different to be typing words that simply come out of my head, in my own words as compared to typing words in a restricted way (knowing that I can’t type this, I have to keep to a certain format, I can’t type anything I want to – I’m talking about my work, by the way) and the feeling is great.
I haven’t been much up to date with my mangas and animes and I did just go to see Captain America: The Winter Soldier so I’m going to review that. It’s a nice change to be writing about a movie again 🙂
In one sentence to sum up the Captain America sequel, it was effing amazing, effing AWESOME.
Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo and starring the handsome Chris Evans as Captain Steve Rogers AKA Captain America, the lovely Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff and Samuel L. Jackson as Director Nick Fury, the cast is simply amazing and the stunts are all brilliantly choreographed. New characters such as Sam Wilson, AKA the Falcon add on excitement to the story and an old familiar face will throw mystery and a whole bunch of questions into the story. The story has a good plot and a good pace that will slowly reveal the secrets and answers to almost everything. There is also a plot twist that will throw you off-guard. Honestly, I didn’t fully get what was exactly going on until probably three-quarters into the movie.
So here comes the movie synopsis:
Set two years after the events in The Avengers, Steve Rogers is still struggling to catch up to present-day modern society and adapt. He still works for S.H.I.E.L.D. but trouble and mystery brews underneath the safe and upright facade of the organisation. After a raid on a S.H.I.E.L.D. ship is revealed to be a set up by Nick Fury himself, things start to look suspicious when Steve finds out that Nick Fury hasn’t been telling him everything. While Nick Fury himself calls it ‘compartmentalising’, Steve sees it as a lack of trust.
Nick Fury eventually gets chased and attacked by policemen and narrowly escapes about six police cars that were hot on his tail. Wounded, Nick Fury seeks refuge at Steve’s house. He doesn’t give him much information about what’s going on and only tells him that they’re being watched and not to trust anyone as his final words before he passes a thumbdrive to him and seemingly dies from an ambush. Steve gives chase to the gunman but the mysterious person is no ordinary person and he disappears into the night easily. Steve however, does take note that this person is fast, strong and had a metal arm.
When Steve meets with S.H.I.E.L.D. official Alexander Pierce, Pierce demands to know what Nick Fury said to him before he died. But wary of the official, Steve says that he didn’t know why the director was in his room that night and withholds information from him. As he leaves the office on his way down in the elevator, Steve notices the suspicious behaviour of the people around him. He eventually catches on what is happening and a brawl breaks out.
He escapes by jumping out of the building and goes back to the hospital where Nick Fury once was. He meets Natasha there and together, they work to find the source of the information in the thumbdrive. She tells him about Nick Fury’s murderer, a person known as the Winter Soldier who had murdered many others in the last 70 years. She tells him that the Winter Soldier is real but that he’s a ‘ghost story’. They are directed to an old familiar place of Steve’s where a S.H.I.E.L.D. bunker was built. There, they encounter the preserved consciousness of Arnim Zola, the German scientist who worked for the Red Skull. Zola reveals that the organisation HYDRA operated within the ranks of S.H.I.E.L.D. shortly after it was founded and that there was a plan to eliminate millions of people in a few days’ time.
Before they can find out more information, they realise that a missile was headed their way and they narrowly escape the explosion. Steve takes Natasha to Sam’s house and Sam offers his help to Steve, revealing that he was trained in aerial combat with the help of a special set of wings.
The trio set out once more but they are chased by the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and the Winter Soldier. A fight breaks out as the trio attempt to defend themselves and during the intense fight between Steve and the Winter Soldier, Steve knocks off his opponent’s face mask and when the guy looks up at him, the two stare at each other for a moment and shocked, Steve breathes,
‘Bucky? ‘
~
So I think that’s pretty much enough for the story, the rest is up to you to go and find out by watching this amazing movie in the cinemas. I think I’ll wait a little longer to watch my favourite movies in the cinema next time; the cinema was so full that even the front row was taken and it was so noisy, more often than not with whisperings and food-crunching noises. But I don’t regret watching this movie ASAP since it was the movie of my favourite Avenger ^^
RATING
Story pacing: 10/10 (I felt that the story development was good; not too fast, not too slow)
Choreography: 10/10 (The stunts and the action scenes were all so good, really)
Acting: 9/10 (Chris Evans wonderfully portrayed the vulnerable and trusting side of Captain America that still believes that there are good people in this world worth trusting, Scarlett Johansson portrayed the mysterious and sceptical Black Widow so well that I nearly suspected that she was a spy at one point, Samuel L. Jackson did a great job in portraying Nick Fury as a mysterious person with superior motives for the good of people and Anthony Mackie was wonderful as the ex-soldier Sam Wilson)
Overall rewatchability: 9/10 (It was amazing. But I didn’t give it a 10 simply because the story may seem a little slow with the information revealing and knowing what happens after already watching it once, you’d probably only want to watch the action scenes from second time onwards)
Finally, here’s a quote from the movie that made me laugh:
‘Don’t look at me. I do what he does, just slower.’
– Sam Wilson, the Falcon
Captain America: The Winter Soldier is worth watching, and definitely not one to miss for Marvel fans like me. And oh yeah, when you do go and watch the show, remember to stay all the way till the end. Trust me, you do not wanna go away. You’d know what I mean, Marvel fans 😉
I’m really sorry that I haven’t been blogging due to other stuff that I’ve been preoccupied with.
So with my return to blogging, I was wondering what kind of post I should do and I decided to do an anime movie review on another of Miyazaki’s works, Howl’s Moving Castle.
I had high hopes for Howl’s Moving Castle when I first decided to watch it because I was watching it after Spirited Away, which completely took me by surprise and well, blew me away haha. I didn’t expect Howl’s Moving Castle to be so… fuzzy and vague.
What I consider as good stories are stories that you understand once they’re told to you because they’re clear and the story flows so you get the continuity and shift of the story. Howl’s Moving Castle isn’t like that. A lot of the story is fuzzy and vague that so many questions are left unanswered even till the end of the movie. I found myself confused and completely bewildered when the credits started rolling at the end of the movie because I was so puzzled at the ending.
This movie is just those kinds that make you think to put two and two together and I guess I don’t really like movies like these. I prefer movies that just explain the story to me clearly – that’s good storytelling. But I tried hard not to hate this movie, simply because it isn’t an original work of Miyazaki’s – this story is adapted from Diana Wynne Jones’ book of the same name. And I found that I couldn’t hate the movie because of Howl – he’s so darn handsome as many of friends said ^^
So Howl’s Moving Castle is about a hatter, Sophie who meets Howl, a powerful wizard on her way to visit her sister. Her encounter with him changes her life forever after that. The Witch of the Waste who seems to have romantic feelings for Howl, visits Sophie’s shop but Sophie refuses to entertain her because the shop is past its opening hours. Angry, the Witch transforms Sophie into a 90-year-old woman.
Seeking a cure for her curse, Sophie leaves home to go to the Wastes to look for the Witch. There, she meets a scarecrow who takes her to Howl’s moving castle. She meets Calcifer, Howl’s fire demon who runs the house and Howl’s apprentice, Markl. Calcifer offers to break her curse in exchange for her help in releasing him from the spell he’s under that bonds him to the castle – if she figures out the secret contract, the spell will break and Calcifer would break her curse.
During this time, Sophie’s country has begun to go to war with a neighboring country because of the disappearance of the other country’s Crown Prince. Howl receives summons from the king to fight in the war from his various assumed identities and the fighting is intense. He is terrified, however and asks Sophie to pretend to be Pendragon (one of his identities)’s mother and tell the king that her son is a good-for-nothing so he would give up on him.
Sophie goes and on the way there, she meets the Witch of the Waste who mocks her and the two of them have a mini competition to see who gets there first haha. Both of them enter a room with a single chair in it and the Witch makes a beeline for it immediately, completely exhausted from the previous staircase. Sophie goes into another room, led by a dog whom she assumes is Howl, following her in disguise.
There, she meets Madame Suliman who tells her that Howl was her last apprentice and that his heart was stolen by a demon. She tells Sophie that if this carries on, he would end up like the Witch of the Waste, who had made a deal with a demon before too. She warns Sophie that if Howl wishes to serve the kingdom, she would teach him how to break it off with the demon, if not, she would strip him of all his powers as she had done with the Witch of the Waste, who was reduced to just a harmless old lady.
Sophie finds this all very ridiculous and starts to talk back, saying that even though Howl is heartless, selfish, cowardly and unpredictable, he’s straight as an arrow and only wants to be free. She tells Suliman that Howl won’t turn into a monster and will battle the demon on his own. As she says all of this, she slowly regains back her youth and Suliman clearly sees her for who she really is and that she’s not Pendragon’s mother, but that she’s in love with him.
Howl then comes in the disguise of the king but the real king turns up and his identity is revealed. He takes Sophie away and escapes, along with Suliman’s dog and the Witch. Sophie crashes into the castle and clears away the crash-landed plane with help from Markl and the scarecrow.
Howl returns home and announces that they’re moving because if they stay put, Suliman would find them. They shift to Sophie’s old home and Howl gives her a present: a doorway to a beautiful meadow that he calls his secret garden. She admires its beauty but it doesn’t last long – they are interrupted by a warplane searching for Howl and he quickly takes her back through the doorway while he stays to fight.
They are soon visited by Sophie’s mother who unknown to them, is a spy for Suliman and plants a peeping bug in the house. It is immediately discovered by the Witch though, who feeds it to Calcifer. It is poisonous to him though, and he seemingly nearly dies out. The war becomes more intense with bombs dropping from the skies everywhere and demons roaming the streets freely.
Howl returns briefly, curing Calcifer and telling him to look after the house before leaving to join the fight again. Sophie stops him, telling him not to go but to run away instead but Howl tells her that he’s done with running away because he found someone he wants to protect: her.
Sophie then does something I would never understand: she tells everyone to move out, even taking Calcifer with her. The moment Calcifer leaves the doorway, the castle collapses. Sophie finds an opening into the now collapsed castle and tells Calcifer to wait while she throws him some firewood and tells him to move the castle to where Howl is.
Okay, how dumb is that? You make the castle collapse then go back inside and tell the fire demon to move the castle now in that dilapidated state? This, I don’t get.
Calcifer tells her that it’s ridiculous and that he can’t power the house with no roof but Sophie showers him with praise on how he’s so capable and strong that it boosts his ego. He requests that Sophie gives him something of hers and she offers him her hair. Calcifer takes her braid of hair and lifts up the house but the only part of the house that can be moved is only a small portion of the old castle.
The Witch, seeing Calcifer lift up the ‘castle’, realises that Howl had given his heart to Calcifer. She takes the heart and refuses to let it go until Sophie splashes her with a bucket of water. The water hits Calcifer too, making him lose his magic and power. The ‘castle’ is split into two and Sophie and the dog, Heen are separated from the rest of the group.
Desperately wanting to find Howl, Sophie is led into a doorway by the ring that howl gave her as a protective charm and is shown how Howl and Calcifer met. When she returns to reality, she finds Howl who has completely lost his human consciousness and tells him to take her to Calcifer. Sophie and Heen are reunited with the rest of the group and she asks the Witch for Howl’s heart. She gives it to her and Sophie places it back in Howl. Calcifer is released and Howl comes back to life. The scarecrow who has followed them is also given a kiss from Sophie as gratitude and to their surprise, it transforms into a young man who reveals that he is the missing prince from the neighboring country. Heen shows Suliman the discovery of the missing prince and how everything turned out well in the end and she decides to put an end to the war.
– Final Thoughts –
This isn’t really my favourite movie simply because I don’t like complex movies that aren’t straightforward and simple. I did read up on it from several sources after watching the show though, to help me understand the story better and it kind of made more sense after that. But still. Stories like these aren’t really my thing with wars and endless fighting. I felt that there were too many unexplained things and that Sophie really did some crazy things that didn’t make sense at all.
If you’ve never watched or read the story of Howl’s Moving Castle before, watching the movie once wouldn’t explain to you why Howl had to fight in the war, or why making a deal with a demon would cause his doom or why the ring that Sophie had showed her that weird memory of Howl’s past. Or that’s just me, because I need information served to me point-blank. I guess if you can infer then you’d be able to find and guess all the answers to those questions.
I didn’t like Sophie’s character much, there wasn’t anything much admirable or outstanding about her. And I didn’t like her voice actress, to be honest. Maybe the only thing that I felt happy for her was when she found her confidence and she regained her youth because she was in love. I also did sympathise with her when Howl made a fuss out of his hair changing colour and telling her that there was no point in living if you weren’t beautiful. However, I felt that overall, as a character, I couldn’t relate to Sophie and I didn’t find her as endearing as I did with Chihiro from Spirited Away.
Howl was the only redeeming factor about this movie, I felt. I like his voice actor and I liked his mysteriousness. The ambiguity about his background made me curious to know more about him and of course, Howl has a charming personality and a pretty face, what’s not to like? He’s like a little boy, young at heart and straightforward in the things he wants and that’s what I liked about his character.
I liked Markl too as he came to love Sophie more and more and started treating her like family. His voice actor sounds so adorable too haha.
Lastly, the theme song of Howl’s Moving Castle is really good. I didn’t really notice the other soundtracks of the movie but that’s perhaps they weren’t outstanding enough for me to take note of. Joe Hisaishi’s music is magic, as usual.
Personally, I wouldn’t want to watch this show again for its story but I definitely would watch it again, if I feel like watching Howl in action.
I watched Spirited Away yesterday and I must say, I didn’t expect to like it so much at the end of it.
As many of you know, Spirited Away is a Hayao Miyazaki film and I love Miyazaki’s stories. I especially love his films because of the talented Joe Hisaishi who composes all the soundtracks for his movies. I really went through various feelings while watching the show and it really touched my heart in the end.
I can’t believe that I dragged watching this show. I should’ve just gave it a go back when I was still having Japanese classes. This is the third Miyazaki show that I’ve seen and I’m really interested in watching other works of his.
Spirited Away is about a 10-year-old girl, Ogino Chihiro who learns how to survive and adapt to the Spirit World, which she accidentally gets trapped in. Her adventure in the Spirit World changes her and she matures into a caring and charming woman by the end of the movie. Initially a whiny, easily frightened and petulant girl, Chihiro is forced to be brave in order to survive and save her parents, who have been turned into pigs after eating food from the Spirit World.
She makes friends along the way and many of them lend her their support. The deuteragonist is Haku, a boy who claims that he has known her since she was a child and is her first friend. Haku is later revealed to be Yubaaba’s apprentice and the God of the swift amber river.
Chihiro’s first task in the Spirit World was to ask for a job from the old boiler man, Kamajii and insist that she be given a job no matter what. Kamajii refuses but after seeing Chihiro’s compassion to help the susuwatari, his helpers, he tells her that she has to ask Yubaaba herself to give her a job and that that is her best chance of surviving in the Spirit World. He entrusts her to Rin, a weasel spirit who somewhat reluctantly agrees to take her up to see Yubaaba.
When Chihiro sees Yubaaba, she single-mindedly insists that she be given a job. Even when Yubaaba silences her and then allows her to speak again about her thoughts about becoming a piglet, the first words that come out from her mouth were that Yubaaba let her work there. Yubaaba, of course, blows up until her son, Bou makes a ruckus. In order to placate Bou and get him to calm down, she gives in to Chihiro’s insistent request.
She makes her sign a contract and takes away Chihiro’s original name, changing her name to Sen. She then summons Haku to show Sen to the bathhouse. Haku is now cold towards Sen and his cold demeanor puzzles her. Sen is assigned to work as Rin’s helper and later on, both of them are assigned to clean the biggest bath (which is meant for the dirtiest and filthiest guests).
Sen and Rin take their task into their stride and soon after, Sen is assigned to attend to a guest who is assumed to be a stink spirit because of the foul smell it has and sludge-like appearance that pollutes everywhere it goes. The bathhouse workers try to chase away the spirit but it refuses to turn back; the bathhouse has no choice but to evacuate all the guests in it. Yubaaba goes to greet it, suspecting that it is more than just a stink spirit and when she goes to greet it, note that her expression is priceless XD
Sen does her best to clean the guest and finds out that it has a ‘thorn’ in its side. They tie a rope to the ‘thorn’ and pull it out, revealing a bicycle and a lot more pollution in its body that comes pouring out of it.
When the last of the pollution is pulled out, the guest is revealed to be a famous river spirit and that as his thanks, he left them lots of gold, which the bathhouse workers fight for. Yubaaba embraces Sen, telling everyone else to learn from her and that sake is on the house that night hahaha.
The next morning, Sen witnesses a white dragon being attacked by a bunch of paper shikigami and notices that it is injured. She tries to protect it, realising that it is actually Haku transformed. Haku crashes into the bathhouse workers’ quarters and when Sen tries to approach him, he snarls at her and flies out of the balcony, up to where Yubaaba is.
Worrying that Haku is going to die, Sen finds her way up to Yubaaba’s office. She overhears Yubaaba saying that Haku is no longer of use to her and tells her three green head thingies to dispose of him. Sen rushes over and throws herself over Haku’s body, refusing to let the 3 head thingies push him down the disposal chute. One of the paper shikigami that has followed Sen by sticking to her body reveals a projection of Zeniiba, Yubaaba’s older twin sister. Zeniiba tells Sen that Haku stole a precious seal from her as her sister’s lackey and that a spell is cast on it that anyone who steals it must die. Sen refuses to believe that Haku would do such a thing and Zeniiba remarks that all dragons are kind and stupid, eager to learn her sister’s magic and that he would do anything for her.
Haku then wakes up and smashes the paper shikigami and falls down the chute along with Sen and the transformed Bou as well as Yubaaba’s crow. He wakes up when he hears her calling his name and crashes into Kamajii’s boiler room.
Sen tries to get him to eat the herbal medicine she obtained from the River God she cleaned upon hearing that there’s something inside him that’s killing him. She bites half of it and gives it to Haku, opening his mouth and shoving it in before quickly securing down his mouth as he begins to react violently to it.
Haku vomits out the seal, together with a slug-like creature that tries to escape but is squashed by Sen. Haku transforms back into his human form, confirming her doubts that it was him.
Kamajii tells Sen that just like her, Haku turned up one day out of the blue. He said that he wanted to learn magic; Kamajii greatly disapproved. Kamajii told Sen that he became Yubaaba’s apprentice and as the days passed, he turned increasingly pale and his eyes took a sharp gleam. Sen then voices her desire to pay a visit to Zeniiba and return the seal. At the same time, she would apologise for Haku and ask Zenniba to cure him. Kamajii tells her that Zeniiba is a witch and that the train ticket is one-way only, meaning that she would have to walk back herself. Sen agrees and Kamajii gives her train tickets.
In the meantime, a Kaonashi (No-Face) has been interested in Sen and has helped her twice because she invited him into the bath house when she first started working there. He swallowed three workers and had started to throw a terrible tantrum because Sen refused to take his gold. He demands to see her and Yubaaba summons her to placate him. Sen goes to see him and he tells her that he wants her because he’s lonely. Sen then gives him the other half of the herbal medicine and he angrily starts to chase her around the bath house while vomiting out the three workers he swallowed.
Sen then leaves the bath house to go to the train station and take the train to the Swamp Bottom. The Kaonashi follows her. They reach Zeniiba’s place and Zeniiba reveals herself to be the complete polar opposite of her sister, kind and caring. Sen returns her the seal and apologises on Haku’s behalf. Zeniiba is impressed that she didn’t get hurt while carrying it and notes that the spell that she put on the seal is gone. Sen apologises again, saying that she stepped on the slug-like thing that was on the seal and squashed it. Zeniiba roars with laughter and explains that the slug-like thing was snuck into Haku so that she could control her apprentice.
Zeniiba invites her guests to tea and when Sen asks her to help her, she says she can’t because it’s one of their rules. Sen then asks for a hint because she feels that she and Haku met a long time ago and Zeniiba tells her that that’s easy.
‘Nothing that happens is ever forgotten, even if you can’t remember it.’
A while later, Sen tells Zeniiba that she wants to go back because Haku could be dying any moment. Zeniiba hands her a hairtie which she says will protect her. At that moment, she notes that there is a guest and tells Sen to get the door. She does and is surprised to see Haku out there.
Sen runs to greet him and her relief is shown all over her face. What a truly wonderful scene.
Zeniiba forgives Haku for what he did and tells him to protect Sen.
Sen rushes to hug Zeniiba goodbye and tells her that her real name is Chihiro. Zeniiba remarks that it is a wonderful name and to take care of it because it is hers.
She then bids her goodbye and takes off on her flying dragon boyfriend
On the way back, Sen starts to have vague recollections of her falling into a river. Sitting on Haku’s back starts to seem familiar as water, like a river. She tells Haku that when she was younger, she dropped into a river. That river was drained and things were built on top soon after but she remembered that it was called the Kohaku river. She gives him his real name, Kohaku and Haku turns back into his human form.
As they fall from the sky, Haku thanks her and tells her that he remembers his real name and that he remembers how she fell into him as a child because she lost her shoe. Sen says that she’s grateful because he swept her to shallow waters and they smile happily at each other
They return to the bath house and Haku tells Yubaaba to keep her promise to let Sen go if he bring back her son, Bou. Yubaaba doesn’t give in so easily so she asks Sen to identify her parents from a group of pigs and that she only has one chance. Sen correctly guesses that her parents weren’t there and she joins Haku who takes her back to the edge of the Spirit World. At the border, he tells Sen that he can’t go further and he promises that they’ll meet again.
The way he tells her to go and lets go of her hand made me want to cry, I swear T.T
Chihiro finds her parents waiting for her, with no memory of their time as pigs. They go through the tunnel and Chihiro nearly turns back to look but doesn’t. She follows her parents and they come out on the other end of the tunnel. Their surroundings look different from before though and they go back into their family car before driving off.
– Final Thoughts –
The soundtrack was PERFECT as expected from Joe Hisaishi. All the emotional scenes were enhanced by the mood of the music and this film really made me go through many feelings as I mentioned in the beginning.
A few great songs from this soundtrack are Reprise, One Summer’s Day, Day of the River, The Return and The Dragon Boy. Here below is ‘Reprise’.
I felt shock when Chihiro saw that her parents had transformed into pigs and couldn’t leave the Spirit World and I felt attached to Haku the moment I saw him hahaha. His seiyuu has a really nice voice, really. Then, I felt worried for Chihiro as she was on her way to see Kamajii as she had to go down a flight of stairs that didn’t have railings for safety. I felt tensed when she asked for a job single-mindedly; it was clear that she wasn’t going to take no for an answer. Then later when Haku seemed cold and distant, I had mixed feelings because I didn’t know what to think of him. I felt disgust when Sen was tasked to clean the ‘stink spirit’ – they were clearly picking on her because she was a newcomer. I felt happy for her when she was praised and when she stood her ground, refusing the Kaonashi’s gold. I felt scared for her when she had to deal with the injured Haku who constantly snapped at her. I felt all warm and fuzzy inside when she hugged Haku outside Zeniiba’s house and I felt like crying when she let go of Haku’s hand to reunite with her parents.
So many emotions. Miyazaki is a genius. My apprehension of watching and liking this movie turned into like, more than like actually. Spirited Away completelely won me over by the end of the show and I loved it. Miyazaki really gave the 10-year-old girls out there a role model to look up to and this is a story that you do not want to miss.
Spirited Away has the same romance element as in Princess Mononoke in the sense that Miyazaki puts romance in his stories and makes it nice and sweet but he doesn’t delve deeper into it and expand on it. What happens to San and Ashitaka in Princess Mononoke and Haku and Chihiro in Spirited Away is left for us to imagine if they ever end up together again. I guess Haku and Chihiro’s isn’t expanded because she’s just 10 years old and Haku is somewhat young too (I mean, he looks like a boy, right?)
But I really liked this movie and it totally has the Miyazaki flavours to it. Feminism, pollution of nature (Haku and the ‘stink spirit’) and a reflection of ourselves (the Kaonashi). Truly a wonderful work of art, it’s a pity that Miyazaki is retiring.
I’m not going to delve too much into the story because I’ve already reviewed Heroine Shikkaku back in 2014. You can click 
Shocked at the sudden turn of events that she had never taken into account before, Hatori begins to experience heartbreak and with encouragement from her stoic but wise best friend Nakajima, she begins to work on winning back Rita’s heart.
First, I want to give high praise to Kiritani Mirei, who was spot on on Hatori’s reactions, expressions – everything. When she was miserable and crying over Rita, I felt my heart break as well. When she was mean and snobbish to Adachi, I even felt like siding with her. To imitate Hatori in the manga, Kiritani Mirei had some exaggerated expressions to do and I didn’t think the movie would actually include this little detail in but her exaggerated expressions were HILARIOUS. She was absolutely a darling to watch, so funny and dear. I am pleased and satisfied to say that she was the right choice to play Hatori, without a doubt.
Honestly, as Rita, he didn’t really have much to do. Except look cool, calm and nonchalant about almost everything. It’s a personality similar to a previous role he played – L-DK‘s Kageyama Shuusei minus the perverted teasing. So I can’t really fault him there for not showing much emotion. Because that’s what’s he’s supposed to be. Emotionless haha. Okay I shan’t be so mean.
myanimangalist 