Sekai no chûshin de, ai o sakebu

This is a beautifully shot and profoundly touching film about love and grief. Normally I am not really into sappy romance movies, because many of them insult my intelligence. But this sentimental drama completely captivates me and I cried and cried and cried again.

In "Crying Out Love, in the Center of the World," Saku and Aki are two high school classmates in the 80s. They fall in love and use audio cassettes to record their diaries for each other. However, this romance didn't last forever. And 17 years later, when Saku comes back to his hometown, he is still consumed by his love of his life time.

The film travels between two time lines seamlessly and never slows down on building up the emotion through a brilliant performance by a terrific ensemble cast. I believe in and feel the love between the characters, which is why I am so deeply moved by their love story.

This movie is based on a novel written by Katayama Kyoichi. The first print only limited to 8,000 copies but after Shibasaki Kou (that cast Ritsuko) had read it in a occasion, she was deeply impressed and recommend it on a magazine. Hence the rest is history and it had sold over 3 million copies in Japan which beat the sales record of Norway's forest. Due to the heat of the book, the story had bring into the movie which include the top of the crew in Japan movie industry.

Ritsuko role are only add to the movie and not appear in the original novel and the original "Centre of the world" is not in Australia in the book too. However, this movie still touching my heart as I had a common feeling which as I have pass my youth in the same 80 age like Saku and Aki, where walkman is such a precious thing in that time.

The score is very well done and is emotional moving, the main theme by Hirai Ken is excellently with stirring melody.

I highly recommend this movie but sadly it is not easily available in western country except by internet selling like yes.Asia 9 / 10

I have just returned from holiday and had the unexpected chance to view this film during a 13-hour long plane flight. It was admittedly one of 60 movies on offer - mainly in English. I once lived in Japan for several years and couldn't help but draw some parallels to my experiences and relationships whilst living there. The title does not become fully clear until you have seen the entire film so I will not spoil it for you - the best thing is to approach the film with a completely open mind, with as little knowledge of the plot as possible. Suffice to say that I found this movie captivating from the very beginning, evocatively scored (the piano music really hits the spot), beautifully photographed, and the leading characters are all sensitively portrayed by the Japanese actors and actresses involved, many of whom will not be familiar to movie-goers outside Japan. Although it runs for almost 2 hours I found that the film never dragged and developed the story and characters at a realistic pace. I was touched by this moving story so much that it had me crying too !

The English title of this movie is "Crying out love, in the centre of the world".

After the proliferation of Korean romances in the last few years, Japan has made a come back, first with top romance "poetic" director Shunji Iwai's Hana and Alice. The director of Cry, Isao Yukisada, has collaborated extensively with Shunji Iwai and has been considered by many as his successor. The book on which the movie was based has taken Japan by storm; ditto the movie. However, as the story in the book, while beautiful, is a little too simple to sustain a movie, an additional character was written into it, played by Kou Shibasaki who suggested the idea of the movie in the first place. Also, the movie adopts the favourite structure for Japanese romances, one of parallel events, the present and a flashback. The success of this approach is quite evident.

Coming before the title is a prelude, with a frame showing a rain-beaten window pane and voice over, to the very, very faint background of Bach-Gounod's Ave Maria (does that bring back Raging Bull?) The voices of the boy and the girl are languid and melancholy. The meaning of this prelude scene and its background music are revealed only close towards the end.

The premise is familiar, a simple, sweet high school romance ended by a leukaemia death. What makes this movie a cut above the pack is that it does not go all out to be a tearjerker. The romance story in the flashback, which accounts for most of the movie, is told with refreshing simplicity, absorbing the audience in the attentive details and interesting characters, particularly the girl played so charmingly by Masami Nagasawa. The length of two-and-a half-hours is not an issue at all. Once you get into the small town of Takamatsu, time sort of stands still. If you don't like that sort of thing, one more minute would become boring. If you love it, passage of real time in the cinema is simply not noticed.

I won't dwell on the plot. We know very early that the girl in the romance eventually died of leukaemia so there's no spoilers there. To enrich the movie, an additional character is introduced, the man's (was the boy) present fiancée who however has a link to the past. Some think that this small plot twist is just a little too engineered but personally, I don't have a lot of problem with it.

One very interesting aspect is the retro element. The period of the flashback is the 80s, cassette messages listened via a walkman serves as a link between the pass and the present – a sort of audible love letters.

Ken Harai fans make sure that you do not dash away before the ending credits, which is accompanied by his performance of the title song he wrote.

As a rule, I avoid romance tales and this one was nearly no exception. I didn't see it in the theaters when it was out last year, even though friends recommended it. Just by chance, I rented the DVD. It is available in Japan with English subtitles. Now, after several days, I can't stop thinking about it.

Sakutaro is a man in his mid-thirties about to marry Ritsuko, a woman in her late twenties. While getting ready to move, Ritsuko encounters an old audio cassette tape she forgot she had. Though she knew what the tape was, she had never heard it. After locating a store that still sells audio cassette players, she listens to it for the first time. It takes her on a pilgrimage to her (and Sakutaro's) childhood home town. She leaves a message telling him that she's going away for a while.

By chance, Sakutaro learns where Ritsuko went and he goes there. He finds himself on a pilgrimage of his own.

I can't proceed much further, but it can be said that this is not a frivolous love story. I deals with the permanence of love in a most touching and original way. I really hope this film finds its way out of Japan. I gave this movie an eight out of ten.