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What I really liked about One Million Yen and the Nigamushi Woman was the simplicity of the story and the acting.

When I say simplicity, it wasn't that the plot was boring or too thin. But, the way they presented the story, the character's struggles and her way of thinking and making ends meet was really good, simple, clean and realistic. Plus, the love story was realistic as well.

The acting, in addition, was really good. Especially the leading lady was phenomenal.

However, the ending was so so, as it left many questions answered. And that felt like the movie was presenting just a glimpse of the girl's life.

So, overall, six out of ten.

I love these 'search for self' type road-movies, and I've seen many of them, but this is among the best.

The movie starts with the protagonist Suzuko (Aoi Yuu) getting arrested for throwing out all of her roommate's belongings. The criminal record made it hard for her to stay home, so she saved up 1 million yen ($10000) to move to another town where nobody knows her. She repeats this process throughout the movie to keep her distance from others.

Aoi Yuu was incredible in this movie, her control of emotion was flawless, especially in the final scene. I never realized how skinny she was though... I really connected with the protagonist. In fact, I sympathized with her character to the point it felt like I was watching myself from couple years ago. All the other actors gave excellent performance as well.

Music in this movie matched all the scenes very well, even background noises served to heighten the tension etc. Great direction all around, and there were many beautiful scenes of various landscapes in Japan, from sea to mountain, countryside to city.

This film had many memorable scenes, and the story was very intriguing. I especially liked that line, "I don't want to search for myself, I'm here even if I don't want to be here." We all try to escape from reality sometimes, I'm sure this movie would give you courage to face your problems.

Although Yu Aoi has been in many films before, she has always shared the spotlight with others or has played minor supporting roles. For One Million Yen Girl, this is actually her first starring role where she is the undeniable main character and she gives a knock-out performance that's worth mentioning! Her expressions of shyness, embarrassment, awkwardness, determination and loneliness are played flawlessly! I don't know what it is about Yu, but it's always so easy to sympathize with her characters. She has a certain charm and elegance about her that can easily win over any audience.

As for the film, One Million Yen Girl is a crowd-pleasing movie with a positive message. Even though the film is a somewhat conventional "Search for Yourself" road movie, it has a not so conventional ending that I thought felt just right.

This was an outstanding performance by Ms. Aoi and I hope she gets more opportunities to showcase her talent and star in future films. Along with Hana & Alice, it should be noted that this is her best work yet and I think only shows how effective she can be if given decent material to work with.

Comfort film material!! The ending was open ended so very thought-provoking, and i love the realism throughout the film.

Excellent acting (though not much range is shown). Yuu aoi has a really good control of her facial expressions and body language btw.

In terms of the plot, though, i wish we got a final conversation to happen between suzuko and the guy but honestly not too big of a deal.

The cinematography is also absolutely beautiful. Love the composition and the colour-grading. Angles are also immaculate! :)

i would've loved a sequel, but this movie by itself is already sufficient. It leaves a lot of questions for the viewer and has some scenes that suggest a certain direction, without overtly saying anything; those types of films tend to stay longer on the viewers' minds.

Best movie ever. Not only is the plot simple, but its understandable. The movie is cute, funny, quirky and has an overall misty feel to it. I love the acting, music, character choices and how they play out the movie. The end made me absolutely bawl. The way he was only using her money to make her stay was absolutely amazing. I love the entire movie and EVERY scene of the movie. This has been my favourite movie since 2009 when I first saw it. Not only is this movie special to me but it has such a deep meaning. I never write reviews so this Is how you know I absolutely love this movie. I cant even fathom it.

ONE MILLION YEN GIRL (2008)

A young girl (Yu Aoi) travels Japan to find herself. Each time she's earned 1 million yen she moves to the next job until she might have found a place to stay... A very strong Japanese road trip-drama that focuses on a young girl coming to terms with life without ever getting heavy-handed or melodramatic. Lead actress Yu Aoi is simply outstanding and I always appreciate going sight-seeing in rural Japan.

I just don't really know what to think about the way the love story plays out and how the movie ends. I've read an interpretation about the final five minutes being just some sort of wishful thinking which would certainly be more satisfying than if it had taken place for real.

Review written by artist jayakumar jrain.