I had the opportunity to see this at Nippon Connection Festival in Frankfurt/Germany and was quite surprised cause it has been a long time since I've seen a Japanese movie without Yakuza, sex, violence, slapstick or tarantinoesk gang-shootout. This one takes some time to get fully into gear, but after 20 Minutes the audience gets the connection to the four main characters which are teenagers in a town not far from Tokyo.
These two girls and two boys are connected one to another in the way that every single one of them loves another one, so that their feelings "build a circle". A emotional tense situation that finds its release in a traditional Japanese bow-and-arrow-competition that will be interrupted surprisingly.
There isn't much to spoil about the story of the flick which is quite simple but profound. If you can remember the time in school and if you had a school-love, perhaps, you will find a sweetness in this picture, that will make you laugh and that will make you sad.
The director Ryuichi Hiroki was present at the film festival and said that he wanted to see if other people could connect to the topic. I certainly could which is something I cannot say about many Japanese movies. After all Mr. Hiroki-san gets a 7 out of 10 for a beautiful little movie about school-times and school-love.
Watch it. Verbal_K
- SPOILER -
These two girls and two boys are connected one to another in the way that every single one of them loves another one, so that their feelings "build a circle". A emotional tense situation that finds its release in a traditional Japanese bow-and-arrow-competition that will be interrupted surprisingly.
- SPOILER END -
There isn't much to spoil about the story of the flick which is quite simple but profound. If you can remember the time in school and if you had a school-love, perhaps, you will find a sweetness in this picture, that will make you laugh and that will make you sad.
The director Ryuichi Hiroki was present at the film festival and said that he wanted to see if other people could connect to the topic. I certainly could which is something I cannot say about many Japanese movies. After all Mr. Hiroki-san gets a 7 out of 10 for a beautiful little movie about school-times and school-love.
Watch it. Verbal_K