I'm kind of at a loss of words here because my mind is still reeling from what I just experienced.... I didn't even finish the film because I got so frustrated. I read the manga years ago so I know the supposed ending but i'm not even sure if they kept it the same and quite frankly I don't care. The only reason I even gave this 4 stars and not 1 is because I laughed quite a lot, so when you look at it as a comedy it has some redeeming qualities, I guess. The acting was mediocre, the dialogue was infuriating (the amount of time the word stupid and cute were said makes them seem unreal to me now, like are those even words ; who knows) Don't even get me started on the editing I felt like I was partaking an acid trip half the time and the other half I started dozing off with the boring panorama shots. So many situations were left unanswered so if you haven't read the manga good luck with this one.
18 Reviews
What a disappointment
her_27328 December 2019
I read the manga and liked it a lot, so I had high expectations, but the movie was one big disappointment... The plot is rushed and it's not explained properly, the dialogue is bad and the scenes seem disconnected, like they were just thrown together randomly.
One redeeming grace is the background music, like Pachelbel's Canon in D (one of my favourite classical pieces) and Beethoven's Fur Elise, though the latter was often remixed in modern and completely inappropriate versions.
The story had great potential, too bad they made a mess out of the movie :(
Not Good Enough
PennyReviews20 January 2020
" Hot Gimmick : Girl Meets Boy " is not for everyone.
When it comes to the artistic part, the movie had an interesting cinematography, but, most of the time, it gave me motion sickness, as the camera zoomed in and out, the characters kept running and changing positions too suddenly and quickly. The story was also too thinly spread and the way it was presented it made it confusing. So, it was hard to enjoy it as the whole theatrical approach distructing. The performances seemed good though.
So, overall, four out of ten.
When it comes to the artistic part, the movie had an interesting cinematography, but, most of the time, it gave me motion sickness, as the camera zoomed in and out, the characters kept running and changing positions too suddenly and quickly. The story was also too thinly spread and the way it was presented it made it confusing. So, it was hard to enjoy it as the whole theatrical approach distructing. The performances seemed good though.
So, overall, four out of ten.
Pls don't romanticize abusive behavior
firstelement22 February 2021
There is no way that anyone, let alone young girls should be watching this and think that it's normal. Why writing something so awfully harmful and beyond all else abusive!!? This is not love. This is not romance. This is just low level behavior in people that you should not be around let alone tolerate. Would've given it minus 10 if it was possible. Big NO!
I'm frankly kind of amazed.
jinkouyuki14 January 2020
Warning: Spoilers
I don't think I've ever been as confused about the plot of a movie as I was with this. The beginning really threw me for a loop, as I was under the impression the whole pregnancy thing with Hatsumi's sister was going to go somewhere. I pretty much understood the whole love triangle bit. Granted, a lot of it felt super cliche. I only knew it was based off a manga after I'd watched the whole thing. It makes sense, as it has a bunch of weird manga tropes.
There's some really problematic treatment of Hatsumi that is played off as okay through "I call you stupid and worthless because I love you." She gets ROOFIED by Azusa and constantly abused by Ryoki yet somehow they are still redeemable characters? However, Hatsumi has absolutely no backbone and watching her be a limp noodle stopped being tolerable almost immediately. Also, the whole "my brother wants to date me" thing is extremely unpleasant to watch. It's funny, because I think Shinogu was probably the best of the three dudes. You know things are bad when a girl's (adoptive, but still) brother is the best romantic option.
As for the viewing experience itself, I had the same issue as other reviewers. The cuts back and forth between characters was way too frequent. One thing that struck me as odd was that there would be scenes where everything felt like a kind of normal movie, and then it would go to these sections where everyone is talking super fast, one after another, to the point that I couldn't figure out who was supposed to be talking. The music was sometimes so distracting from the dialogue that I lost track of what they were saying, and it was often not fitting to the tone of the scene.
This was almost too bad to enjoy even as a B-movie. Still, I watched it all the way through, so it must have cast some kind of spell on me...
There's some really problematic treatment of Hatsumi that is played off as okay through "I call you stupid and worthless because I love you." She gets ROOFIED by Azusa and constantly abused by Ryoki yet somehow they are still redeemable characters? However, Hatsumi has absolutely no backbone and watching her be a limp noodle stopped being tolerable almost immediately. Also, the whole "my brother wants to date me" thing is extremely unpleasant to watch. It's funny, because I think Shinogu was probably the best of the three dudes. You know things are bad when a girl's (adoptive, but still) brother is the best romantic option.
As for the viewing experience itself, I had the same issue as other reviewers. The cuts back and forth between characters was way too frequent. One thing that struck me as odd was that there would be scenes where everything felt like a kind of normal movie, and then it would go to these sections where everyone is talking super fast, one after another, to the point that I couldn't figure out who was supposed to be talking. The music was sometimes so distracting from the dialogue that I lost track of what they were saying, and it was often not fitting to the tone of the scene.
This was almost too bad to enjoy even as a B-movie. Still, I watched it all the way through, so it must have cast some kind of spell on me...
Horrible!
mf-764803 January 2020
If you have never read the manga you will have no clue what is going on. This has no character development or story. It is merely just a random chain of events. The only thing that makes it connect is having read the manga and knowing what happens in between these events.
Not only did they botch the story and characters but the filming style was horrible too. It made me motion sick just trying to watch and what is with the random scenes of random stuff. They cut so much important things to instead have clips of a bird in the sky and some cranes and lights and staircases. Not even sure how this movie was 2 hours long.
Not only did they botch the story and characters but the filming style was horrible too. It made me motion sick just trying to watch and what is with the random scenes of random stuff. They cut so much important things to instead have clips of a bird in the sky and some cranes and lights and staircases. Not even sure how this movie was 2 hours long.
Uncomfortable to watch
julieodsgaard6 January 2020
A movie that is so bad that it's good
perperuna8 September 2020
Except it isn't. What a mess of a movie. I don't know the manga so I have no clue what's the story here. It goes very quickly from one scene to another and a lot of pausing is involved. At some point I just gave up and watched it like it's a music video. It became somewhat enjoyable then.
Well...interesting
ginahiza22 June 2021
Have to say, the story is really weird and a bit difficult to keep up with. I'll probably read the manga to fill in some gaps but it was alright. I do like the somewhat character development from ryoki but that was kinda it. All the male leads were toxic but he was the only option I guess. The cinematography though, wow, that really blew me away, I'd watch the film purely for that. The acting is fairly mediocre. Nothing extravagant apart from the shots taken. Director did well! Apart from that don't expect anything more.
Don't waste your two hours.... seriously.
mothib-402708 August 2021
Wow. So many bad things to say that I don't know where to start. I was so excited to see this live-action movie from one of my favorite manga stories, but it was just horrible. If I hadn't read the manga, I would have been totally lost. The movie just jumps from event to event, with absolutely zero character development at all. The dialogue was really bad, and made no sense half of the time. Crucial events were left out, other events were changed so drastically that they were just limp. There was no emotional connection between any of the characters. This movie just grazes over the main events of a very large story, and it feels disjointed. You get each event, but not "the why" it happened or what brought them to that point. It's like someone picked out the main events from the manga, drew a timeline on a whiteboard, and said... let's go make these scenes, but they didn't add any of the details that lead up to them. So many things were left out that were crucial to the overall story. Also, the characters were nothing like what Miki Aihara created... Hatsumi Narita was a naive pushover; she wasn't stupid. Ryoki was rich, spoiled, intelligent, socially powerful... and decidedly ready to lose his virginity (the catalyst for the entire story). Their relationship was one that started with commands and orders, but slowly developed into communication, compromise, and consideration. Hatsumi learned to stand up for herself and Ryoki listened and learned from her, each developing feelings for the other along the way. That was the core of the manga: to communicate, listen, and learn with each other. None of that was in this movie. To watch this movie without reading the manga, you would think they were in a completely abusive relationship. This movie was just really bad. If you haven't read the manga, go read it to get the real story... with all the drama, emotion, and even humor that should have been in this movie.
MIND BLOWING
regaiqbal9 March 2020
A disappointment
mariellealien21 June 2020
As someone who loved the manga, all I want to say is; read the manga instead.
The cameracrew must have smelling their socks while filming, the cutting is horrible, and the plot is only thinly displayed, could've used more meat. The acting and lines are either horribly translated or just poorly written. If they had made it into a series, they still would have to change most of the actors for it to be decent.
BUT and it's a big but, it gets more true to the manga at the middle, and that really lifts it a bit. Not enough to be good, because there is so much missing in between the changes.
Not as I expected,
blackcloudsswifty31 December 2019
I was expecting this movie for a long time, and it's not worth it. First, about the characters' appearances. It really bugs me that the hair of the characters keep the face of the actors hidden. It's really hard to see their expression with that kind of hairstyle. Besides, they do not look good in this movie as they do in real life. Make up artists should really do something about that. Second, about the way they shoot the movie. It's really confusing to me who have no idea about the manga and just saw this for the first time. It's really rush and the conversations seem disconnected. Some scenes just make me feel dizzy. I really don't like the way they shoot the movie. Also, it feels like some unprofessional people do this because the resolution of the film is very low. I thought my internet connection was bad, but it wasn't. Ok, finally, about the actors. They seem to be inexperienced and not be able to pull this character off.
Difficult to understand
Iori_Vivisan14 March 2022
I understand that the film is quite a show of the complexity of the youth. But sometimes the complexity of the presentation doesn't necessarily make the story difficult to understand. And I think the movie didn't reach the peak of the story. The audience doesn't really understand the theme. The audience was unable to grasp the essence of the story. At this point I'm rating only 4, but if the synopsis of the story is better then I'll give it 5. Overall, I'm quite disappointed with the story.
This is extraordinary, unlike other girls comic movies
houlixie19 June 2020
I have never liked the plot of this type of comic before, but this movie gives me an unprecedented feeling..
I found that this may not be what people expected, there are many other movies based on this kind of comics.. And this movie is different from them... this is very special, surprising.. there is a special rhythm in editing. The arrangement of landscape shoots and close-ups are novel. ..
The pace is not boring, the angles and tones are also interesting, it really brings out the feeling... Especially the train station scene, they measured the space of the platform, film in one take, with the interesting music, this is not an easy task
it might not be a perfect movie, but that is what makes this movie special, raw, and almost experimental. I still enjoyed it very much and feel new when I watch it for the second time
I feel quite sad when I see this movie is so underrated
I found that this may not be what people expected, there are many other movies based on this kind of comics.. And this movie is different from them... this is very special, surprising.. there is a special rhythm in editing. The arrangement of landscape shoots and close-ups are novel. ..
The pace is not boring, the angles and tones are also interesting, it really brings out the feeling... Especially the train station scene, they measured the space of the platform, film in one take, with the interesting music, this is not an easy task
it might not be a perfect movie, but that is what makes this movie special, raw, and almost experimental. I still enjoyed it very much and feel new when I watch it for the second time
I feel quite sad when I see this movie is so underrated
Very great Editing and Cinematography, Story is somewhat weird but it feels like real story
yusufrach12 May 2021
I dont know why people hating this movie, but personally this is one of the best Japanese movie that I ever watch. The story is somewhat complicated and weird, and may not appeal for everyone. The cinematography is SO FREAKING GOOD, combine with the editing makes the movie so great. This movie should get more positive review.
A MIND BLOWING MOVIE
xavierenjoy16 September 2020
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
