Real~Kanzen Naru Kubinagaryu no Hi~
Plot: Koichi (Takeru Sato) & Atsumi (Haruka Ayase) have been friends since their childhood days and they eventually became lovers. About one year ago, Atsumi attempted to commit suicide and fell into a coma afterwards. Koichi, desperate to know why Atsumi attempted suicide, takes part in a new medical procedure that involves the central nervous system. Koichi will enter the subconscious mind of Atsumi through the medical procedure. When Koichi enters the subconscious mind of Atsumi, shes asks Koichi to find a picture of a "plesiosaur" she drew as a child. The drawing is the key that brings back a suppressed childhood memory that brings their minds together. --- asianwiki
I only took a few screenshots because if I did a lot, I would end up spoiling the movie for those who have yet to see it. XD
The movie ran for about 2 hours and 5 minutes. The pacing is slow and eventually picked up towards the last 40 minutes. It has plenty of twists but most of it were twists that I couldn't help but see coming.
Honestly, I'm a bit frustrated because I felt like there's something off with the execution of the story specifically towards the end. This definitely comes from my lack of experience in writing so I can't put my finger on it. It has a very interesting concept and the build-up was good but I guess I felt that the way the problem was solved was too easy and predictable? *shrug* I read that they changed majority of the events in the original novel so maybe that's one of the biggest factors why I thought there was something off with it. I'm really curious about the novel actually. I hope it's translated somewhere.
Bleak colors were used which totally suits the tone of the film. I did a lot of pausing and playing in this as the details were very tricky. Like, for example, the scene where Takeru was driving Shota to his workplace, the background (from inside the car) was blurry and it seemed cartoonish. The CGI was okay. I thought that the "philosophical zombies", most especially when they were represented by the actors, were quite creepy but I also thought that the plesiosaur was cute. lol The horror elements were good. I wasn't scared nor freaked out with the "corpses" but "the grudge effect" with the kid was pretty freaky for me. lol
The acting in the movie is good, it's natural. The leads did a good job however, I think I expected more chemistry from them especially because I like their Lumix commercials before they even got to work on the film. The supporting cast (Nakatani Miki, Horibe Keisuke, Odagiri Joe, Sometani Shota, Matsushige Yutaka, Koizumi Kyoko) all performed to expectations, they are all pretty famous in their own right after all. I have no complaints with the acting department in all honesty and I don't think bias is speaking here either. haha!
In conclusion, It's quite an interesting film but I would say that it would cater to a specific niche. It's not the type of movie that you can just show to anyone. I can see why people would say it's boring and predictable and why some would say otherwise. It's very different from Takeru's previous works so I'm very glad that he tried this genre and had a chance to work with wonderful people. I would say the same for Haruka as his co-lead. Generally, I like this film just somewhat disappointed with the conclusion.
Note: I honestly, did not want to post anything about this primarily because I'm not sure with what I have written. LOL I'm so sorry for being vague. I finally decided to post a month(? XD) after I initially saw the movie to elicit a discussion that can help me figure out what bothers me so much about the execution of the story.