Date of watching - 05 February 2011
Country of Origin - Japan
Rating IMDB - 6.4 out of 10
My Rating - 7/10
I love watching movies, right? I watch not only western films but I watch a lot of Asian movies as well. So, every week, I'll try to make a review of the Asian movies I have watched, especially whenever I didn't get the chance to go to the movie house and catch a film currently showing.
As a primer, I must say that the Philippines loves western films, especially those from the USA. Unlike our Asian neighbors where films from other Asian countries are shown, the Philippines only screens local films, American films and sometimes, British films. The only instance when films from other countries can be shown are during festivals, like Spanish Cinema, French Cinema, Japanese Cinema, and Korean Cinema festivals, among others, usually at the Shangri-la Mall, in EDSA. Some Asian movies made it to our local cinemas before, like The Ring trilogy and other horror films because of their immense popularity a few years back. Stephen Chow's films were also screened, here, if I am not mistaken. But again, they were the exception rather than the general rule.
See, I believe that people in our country should also patronize Asian movies because they are really good. Some were even made into Hollywood movies, but even those Hollywood films could not hold a candle to the originals, save for a few, like The Departed. It was adapted from the Hong Kong film, Infernal Affairs. But the others? Ehh... Remember My Sassy Girl? Its Hollywood adaptation bombed. Horror films like The Ring or the Grudge weren't as effective as their originals, Ringu and Ju-on. And heaven forbid, if ever Old Boy gets a Hollywood greenlight, they better do it well, or Hollywood may just fall into the depths of hell.
So, there.
TOKYO GIRL (Tokyo Shoujo)
"Even if a hundred years' time separates us,
it still feels like your heart is within inches."
Yup, the tag line I wrote as title is really, really cheesy. It came from the message above which sums up the movie, Tokyo Girl. Miho, our protagonist, played by Kaho, is in a restaurant with her mother. However, when her mother tells her that she's going to re-marry, Miho storms out of the restaurant. Suddenly, an earthquake occurs, and Miho drops her phone into the stairs. She tries to find the phone in vain; apparently, the earthquake caused a time hole and the phone drops in a publishing company in Meiji-period Japan. Tokijiro (Kazuma Sano), an aspiring writer, finds the phone and brings it home. Miho repeatedly calls her phone number but she couldn't connect, until night came and the moon becomes visible. Then, she talks with Tokijiro over the phone, the present connecting with the past.
I think, the simplicity of this movie appealed to me. Yes, its theme has been done countless times, remember, the Lake House and its inspiration Korean movie, Il Mare? Yup, instead of two years apart just like in the Lake House, our Miho and Tokijiro are living a hundred years apart. Still, the idea remains the same. Miho and Tokijiro even had a "walking date" in Ginza, just like Keanu Reeves took Sandra Bullock on a "walking tour." There is one twist, though, that differentiates Tokyo Girl: Tokijiro meets an untimely death; not even Miho's warnings could stop him from saving another person's life. In the Lake House, Keanu Reeves was supposed to die but Sandra Bullock warns him. So, they meet after a few years, both alive.
That, however, worked for the Lake House primarily because the leads were separated only by two years. Unlike in Tokyo Girl, a hundred years is such a long time. It's a different era, and besides, Miho and Tokijiro are destined to be apart. Remember, they only communicate through the phone Miho dropped in the vortex, and there's no charger that came with it. Their moments are as short as the lifespan of the phone's battery. Then, even if there is a battery, Tokijiro could not possibly live past a hundred and twenty years, right?
Again, I didn't find the movie novel, but it was still entertaining. I like quiet, serene movies. But really, most adults would die of boredom watching this. Teens and tweens would have no problems sitting through the movie. After all, young girls and I have something in common: the tendency to see the world through rose colored glasses. Heehee.
So, there was this incident during Miho and Tokijiro's walking date when they passed by the same fabric shop, from the past and from the present. Tokijiro went inside the shop and bought a handheld mirror for Miho, and wrote a short message at the back, basically, the cheesy line in the the title of this post. The owner had a daughter, a 5 year old girl named Nanami. Tokijiro begged the owner to give the mirror to Miho after one hundred years but the owner refused saying that he couldn't possibly live that long, but eventually, he relented. Tokijiro told Miho to come to the store and look for the mirror, and surprise, surprise, the mirror was kept for a hundred years and the old Nanami, now 105 years old, gave the mirror to Miho. Nanami obaasan was able to talk to her 5-year old self, telling her to keep the mirror safe, then she spoke to Tokijiro, and said "Arigato" with tears in her eyes.
Later on, it would turn out that Tokijiro died while saving a drowning child, Nanami from the past. Tokijiro's death came after he finished a novel about a girl walking in the future, referring to Miho. He was about to bring it to his sensei; the one work he is really proud of. His work was unpublished for a hundred years but Miho was able to see the manuscript when she visited Tokijiro's relatives. It was later on published and it became a bestseller. After a hundred years, Tokijiro's dream of becoming a published writer came a reality.
If there was something that really bugged me about the movie, it would be the fact that no one seemed to care about the cellular phone Tokijiro was using when he was on a walking date with Miho. I mean, that was a weird contraption but no one noticed that he was speaking to it. Hmm...Oh, well, I'll just give them a pass, an artistic license.
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