Por Acaso em Tóquio

As Matsuda Ryuhei's character says, there are certain delicacies of uniquely Japanese creation. This film is one of them, with a light and pretty exterior but a rich depth at its heart. I don't think I'll be suspected of teenage fangirl favouritism (seeing as I'm neither teenaged or a fangirl) when I say that, as with so many of his lighter films, Matsuda is the core acting talent who brings the best performances out of his two female leads. That's not to say that Aragaki and Kikuchi are not already well above pretty-face levels in their roles, and their relationship is wonderfully natural.

This sweet thing couldn't be made or re-made by any other country but Japan, and I personally kept wanting to walk into the screen and live in the world that Akiko Oku & Co. created.

If you're in the mood for an incredibly contrived and slow paced film with good looking actresses, you'll like this movie. Otherwise save yourself the 2 hours and skip it.

The dialog is extremely slow and frequently just painful to watch. Yui's character doesn't come across as anything more than an immature and inexperienced ("baka!" - Japanese for stupid) young girl, who says and does things that just leave you asking, "Why??!!"

Perhaps my expectations were set too high by the only other user comment for this film, but for me it was a complete disappointment. Yui/Aoki-san is extremely cute, but the storyline and dialogs are just dead on arrival. I watched this film with my girlfriend, and we both kept expecting something interesting to happen, but it never did. I was going to rate it 3 stars out of pity, but she insisted on 1 star, which I can agree with and assure you it's not just a man's one-sided view of a romance story.

I had absolutely zero expectation for this movie, in fact, I was expecting an idol movie from Aragaki Yui, who had been disastrous (though cute) in all her TV drama series I've watched so far. Boy, was I wrong!

The beginning of this movie is like a typical subtle Japanese film with very limited dialogues. It really surprised me how it was still drawing me into the story despite the fact that I had a very negative impression of Gakki and Matsushita Ryuuhei being one of the actors I disliked the most. This film was exceptionally well-directed by the rookie director. It was also very interesting that this movie slowly picks up its pace, and gets pretty intense near the end. I also loved the humor in this film, which was kind of wacky for this type of seishun films.

This is another flawless film I've seen this year. Well-directed, well-acted, great music and nice, touching, deep conclusion. Aragaki Yui's performance was very impressive, I was able to really connect with the character... I can now see why Japan Academy Awards gave her the Best Newcomer Award.

Extremely strong film, 10/10