I stumbled upon this accidentally while prowling through youtube, and I ended up enjoying this movie.
Rio is a high school student who is similar to your cliche popular type on the surface. She amazes everyone with her beauty and is the centre of everyone's gazes. Though beneath she is manipulative and uses everyone for her own gain. This is until she falls in love for the first time, to Kouki, a 35 year old professor. The feeling of doki doki has never reached her before, and now she had been hit like a train, changing her once cruel perspective on the world, and that everything is not as bad and repulsive as it seems to be.
Okay thoughts.
Actually, when I first saw this I was pretty surprised to see Tanihara acting in this. Each time I see him, I didn't know he was in the drama/ movie, and because I love him dearly as an actor, I've never actually searched for what he was in and just kept appearing in various dramas and stuff. And every time my reaction is the same.
Yep. But sorry I watched this about three months ago, so I watched the trailer. I can feel my heart slowly tearing itself apart. *Sigh.
On the movie.
I loved it. The plot is rich with feelings, and as I watched Rio go from manipulative bitch to typical school girl with a crush on her first love, she started to grow on me. It was really, really cute. Really. Especially that she grew on Kouki as well, and that they become something that was pretty pure for a relationship in my opinion. Innocent.
But heartbreaking.
I don't want to enter any spoilers. But the last scene left me pretty speechless. And bittersweet. Not too sure how to feel, but it's not the kind of feeling you get when you watch a movie with a crappy ending. It's like, "Oh....hey.... I like this..but I want to see more, because it seems like this was just the beginning...." sort of thing.
Anyway, it doesn't only deal with just lovey dovey first lost though.
Darker themes such as underage prostitution, depression, the effect of manipulation, broken friendships, broken relationships and how daunting an illness on a loved one can really be on certain people all lie here and there in the plot. I'm not sure how common this is in films like this, but it set that serious tone needed while the film deals with a cutesy love between an 17 year old student and a 35 year old professor.
Oh and this film is a little more beautiful than others in a way, visually.
I recommend this movie to anyone who can handle some of the themes present, and to anyone who's looking for something sadder than your usual romance film. But if you're not, save it until you're ready, because I think this film is worth seeing.
