GIRL IN A SUNNY PLACE (WEIRD ENGLISH TITLE BY THE WAY) MEETS GIRL AT THIRTY THOUSAND FEET
So I am actually flying at the moment. Well, not the moment when you read this, which is quite relative to time differences and all and I must wait till i land to actually posted this. But I was on a plane when I wrote this.
I have been on and off in the fandom for the past year. Don’t get me wrong, my heart still skips a beat when I came across something to do with Jun, but I think I don’t have that much time to contribute to the fandom anymore, the regular varieties, etc. Tho I religiously followed every episode of Shitsuren Chocolatier until the end. After the last episode, I kinda went cold turkey on Jun. I didn’t even feel guilty to say that I didn’t even miss him one bit.
BUT.. Jun just doesn’t let his fans go. Seriously.
I’ve watched Hidamari no Kanojo in theatre whilst I was in Japan last October. Two times. Then just now when I boarded my plane to go to London for business.. Guess what. Yes. Hidamari. WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES. Which wasn’t there when I watched this film the first two times. My Japanese is a very so-so level. You know the level where you can survive ordering food and asking directions in Japan, but not nearly enough for conversations or understand word per word in a 129 minutes film.
Since I’ve read the book before in Indonesian, turns out I didn’t miss anything much, except that I appreciated more now how the script was written, or should I say, adapted from the book.
(I am pretty much reluctant in doing reviews, because I am a filmmaker and I can’t say that I am a non-professional. Even this is just a blog where none of you know my real name, still, criticizing a film when I am a filmmaker is a bit against my work ethics.)
When I watched the film the second time in Toho Cinemas, Shibuya, two mid-thirties women who sit right beside me were crying. Not crying, sobbing!
And now I just did the same thing. 30 thousand feet above the ground.
Yeah, the third act (translated as the last 20-30 minutes) were kinda melodramatic. And the rest is very romantic. Overall, it is an enjoyable watch though the premise (I’ve said this before) is kinda weird in a very Japanese kind of way….
The acting was okay. Jun was okay, Juri was okay.They surely have on-screen chemistry. And I’ve not forgotten but still thoroughly reminded how deadly amazing Jun looked like in that best hairstyle ever. And Kousuke is such a lovable character.
What I find.. well maybe I am still in Film Directing lecturer mode on right now, since I just gave like 8 consultations to first year students yesterday that left me brain fried all day, I can’t help criticizing how it is directed. I know for a fact the director is quite young, but how he filmed it was kinda.. cliche.. and unimaginative. it looked beautiful and yes it served its purpose making those Japanese ladies (and me) cried at the end of the film, but some tiny bits showed that the director is not a visionary, he didn’t aim high in artistic quality (yeah, yeah i know, nobody cares except, well, me) Especially the scenes with the younger Mao and Kousuke. You find some blocking move was highly articulately choregraphed in an obvious way, with no apparent motivation. And some scenes are pushing the romantic nuances too much, for example when they met the first time during the meeting. I’d say the filmmaker tried too hard. And I am not sure on the written lyrics on screen.. It’s.. too predictable and tasteless, kinda ruining the moment because I think the scene coming before that lyrics scene was a great scene.
Forgive the lecture talk. I usually don’t watch that many films like this (I am a big anti-blockbuster-hollywood-films-with-budget-that-can-finance-a-small-country-for-a-year and don’t really bother watching them), so I am watching it for Jun (yes, three times lol and many many more).
Regardless, i still enjoyed it. The first and second act made me smile a lot. Kinda sweet in a subtle kind of way, not too cheesy, but cheesy enough that you just can’t help NOT to smile.
And those tears when I got to third act. Ah, guilty pleasures (^ ^)
Oh, I may not be abjective. You know, jun biased and all (^ ^) And I might had too much wine.
After seeing the film I got caught up again. See how Jun can’t leave me alone? (not that i want him to..) Then I got around and watched his last appearance in NEP league. A good-looking smart guy is such a turn on XD
See how possesive he is to his fans? He doesn’t let us move on! This does not just happen to me, you know!
(sorry if i didn’t make much sense. You know, 30 thousand feet up there and all that wine.)
PS: I posted this about a week late.. Because when I got to London last week, i forgot that I wrote this XD