This review pertains to both "seven days: Monday-Thursday" and "seven days: Friday-Sunday".
I recently watched this movie, which was a pleasant change to most BL ones. Two very popular male high schoolers, whose lives are "date but not stay", in a half-joke-half-serious manner agree to date for a week (mind, they normally date girls). Over the next seven days they unexpectedly learn to look behind each other's facade and to take chances. The focus is on communication, feelings and how to cross your own barriers, while coming out is never an issue (the barriers are about trust and fear of getting hurt alone, nothing to do with own acceptance or social tolerance).
One should always bear in mind that the film is Japanese with obviously a Japanese target group. It is pertinent to a culture, in which people do not talk feelings, and where preserving face is of utmost importance. Hence, there is little going on compared to western fast paced emotional outbursts. Here, emotions evolve gradually, thoughts are expressed by means of inner dialogs (often the line between thoughts and real dialogs becoming blurry) and heroes' actions can be understood, however not always fully comprehended by a westerner.
The acting is really good: the two kids manage to keep up the tension without the support of anyone else (in fact there are practically no other main characters at all).
Definitely worth watching. Although it won't make you sob for long, your heart will probably skip a beat.
I recently watched this movie, which was a pleasant change to most BL ones. Two very popular male high schoolers, whose lives are "date but not stay", in a half-joke-half-serious manner agree to date for a week (mind, they normally date girls). Over the next seven days they unexpectedly learn to look behind each other's facade and to take chances. The focus is on communication, feelings and how to cross your own barriers, while coming out is never an issue (the barriers are about trust and fear of getting hurt alone, nothing to do with own acceptance or social tolerance).
One should always bear in mind that the film is Japanese with obviously a Japanese target group. It is pertinent to a culture, in which people do not talk feelings, and where preserving face is of utmost importance. Hence, there is little going on compared to western fast paced emotional outbursts. Here, emotions evolve gradually, thoughts are expressed by means of inner dialogs (often the line between thoughts and real dialogs becoming blurry) and heroes' actions can be understood, however not always fully comprehended by a westerner.
The acting is really good: the two kids manage to keep up the tension without the support of anyone else (in fact there are practically no other main characters at all).
Definitely worth watching. Although it won't make you sob for long, your heart will probably skip a beat.
