Drowning Love

This is like the representative of being young and dumbly in love. There is the kind of feeling in which they are deeply love each other but just aren't meant to be together. The movie will be pretty confusing, but you need to remember that the characters are teenagers. Aren't we going round and round and running a little bit from the one that we like?

It starts out like a cute, wholesome little romance story with nice cinematography and scenery. The attraction between the girl and the guy are portrayed in this sweet, almost poetic dance of him drawing her in, then pushing her away, him teasing her and running away, making her chase after him. But then the drama becomes too unrealistic and just goes way over the top towards almost absurd territory.

In short, I enjoyed the first part but then it kind of fell apart a bit.

You chase a love object while they run away for their own reasons, you get exhausted, then you chase some more in despair, questioning if you're masochistic. I think it's a situation a lot of people can relate to, especially about their teens and early twenties, and this movie is the place to revisit the feeling. The main character talks at some point about thinking you can get everything when you're around fifteen and how you need something or someone to rock your world, if I didn't get the Japanese wrong, and it's all relatable.

There are two unlikeable main characters: The teen fashion model turned small town schoolgirl who needs action and the troubled, cocky local boy with bleached hair. The characters are interesting but you don't like them, which I think was intended. The story takes place in a town of great nature. A lot of scenes involve the sea and the forest and the characters interact with the nature while they try to capture each other, which I liked. Paired with the catchy soundtrack and the partly wordless communication between the leads, the movie does give a unique feeling. The second part revolves around an unfortunate thing that happens to the girl and how the boy reacts to it, and the movie has been criticized for handling how the adult characters react to that event, or the lack of their reaction, which I agree. However, this is a manga adaptation and that might have stemmed from the manga, not sure.

Overall, an interesting watch from Japan.

The way the scenes cut and dialogue went left me very confused. The director failed to show how the relationship between the main characters even develops at the beginning, you just kind of have to fool yourself that you understand what's going on and hope that it makes sense later. It doesn't really make sense even at the end. The dialogue is cheesy and I don't really get why the director made them chase each other frequently, I guess to portray some 'youthfulness' but it was just silly to be honest. There are also odd uses of close ups and far away shots that feel like they drag for a bit too long. I admit, it was quite refreshing at times but it did get boring after a while. The story gets unrealistic and was very frustrating to watch. However, I loved the acting, especially Nana Komatsu. If it wasn't for her performance, I would've even have finished it.

I had searched for this movie and then decided to watch it just for Masaki Suda and killing time.To be honest ,I did not have so much expectations of it but that I have been watching it changed my mind and caught me by BIG surprise.This is a romance movie where distinguishes itself from others are its full-blown and artistic narrative structure, most appropriate actors selected,young and most beautiful love story.I really love this movie!