Japanese movies / TV shows: what have you watched recently?

[soggyboy]

If anyone thought I gave up on my goal of watching every Godzilla movie, you thought wrong! I just forgot to post in this thread.

Next up was Mothra vs Godzilla (1964)

Started watching this and was completely stunned by the arrival of two…

tiny ladies

Tiny ladies?? Tiny ladies that speak all their lines in unison??? This is the best movie ever, thought I.

But that wasn’t all! The tiny ladies also… sing songs

tiny singing ladies

1964年魔斯拉之歌-聖なる泉

I learned from my friend Wikipedia that the tiny ladies were a singing duo called the Peanuts ザ・ピーナッツ and their record label was Columbia which was partnered with Toho or something, so Toho was just trying to capitalize on their other properties by including them in their monster movies.

I thought this movie had a good story about corporate greed and enjoyed the villain dying from a building collapsing on him while clutching bags of money, but most importantly, and above all, I loved the tiny ladies. I had to find out more about them which led to my next movie.

28 Japanese Godzilla movies remain

Mothra (1961)

Gosh, this Godzilla sequels journey is unexpectedly turning into a ‘touhou monster movies’ journey. I wasn’t expecting there to be homework! I also had a detour in here where I looked up the original Japanese novel for Mothra and tried to find out if I could buy it and read it. This ended when I realized all the copies on Amazon jp were like $50 usd. Sorry tiny ladies, that’s too much!

I expected this movie to explain more about the origins of Mothra and the tiny ladies, perhaps explain why it is that the tiny ladies are so small, but the rest of the islanders are not small. It did not do these things. I suppose the tiny ladies are beyond simple human understanding. My mistake. However, this movie did include several tiny lady songs which I appreciated. It had pretty much the same plot as Mothra vs Godzilla, and actually I think I enjoyed Mothra vs Godzilla more (although hard to say if that’s just because I was so stunned by the arrival of the tiny ladies).

28 Japanese Godzilla movies still remain.

Then back to the Godzillaverse with

Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964)

This movie appears to be a turning point in the Godzilla journey, as it features the first time Godzilla (and friends) join forces to defend the Earth and fight an invader (Ghidorah). Ghidorah had destroyed Venus which used to be a planet with people (venusians) living on it, and now he was coming to destroy Earth. We learned this from a lady who was also a Venusian and was possessing a foreign princess somehow, or maybe she was the princess the whole time and her powers had only been awakened? Ok, I missed some of the details of this movie because I kept getting distracted looking at the cast on Wikipedia and stuff. I thought this one was fine, did not reach the heights of Mothra vs Godzilla, but at least it had an appearance of the tiny ladies.

27 Japanese Godzilla movies remain.

[Stulti]

going through this thread i always feel so unsophisticated with what i watch
just started some stupid drama with boxing and a love story, because i needed something where i can mostly just listen after watching too much korean and thai shows where i had to read the subtitles.
but what i really wanted to watch was some japanese high school romcom but every new one i could find was still in cinemas in japan or not released yet.

[cezarL]

You ought to watch what YOU like, not what others like.

Surely Netflix and Amazon (JP) have a lot of those available? Okay maybe not fresh 2025 titles but still recent ones…

[cezarL]

3.5 Japanese films from me this week

斬、/ Killing (yes, the comma is included in the title; don’t ask me why)
2018, Shin’ya Tsukamoto

In 19th century Japan, a ronin helps villagers of a quiet village tend their land. He has an opportunity to join another ronin and get a job in Edo for the shogun, but when outlaws reach the village, trouble ensues.

zzz

Indie director Tsukamoto is best known for his “industrial” horror and I was curious what he might do with a period piece.

The story was intriguing at first, but for me it broke down in the final act and how it all turned out didn’t make a lot of sense… maybe I just missed something it was trying to say

Unfortunately, Tsukamoto’s usual handheld jerky cam style doesn’t work here, neither with the quieter more personal scenes, nor with the action scenes. The latter are very few, and while there is one quite bloody and gory, I’d argue that the best bits when fewer swordcuts are involved (one scene early on is very cool, but the final one suffers greatly from the filming style).
However when the camera does rest for a bit though… it captures some very fine imagery.

The sound design is… weird, with the music and environmental sounds given a much higher volume compared to the dialogue. And the music is hit or miss, some of the synth/industrial pieces are highly out of place here, but the drums pieces early on were quite good.

The IMDb score is on point I suppose…

…but then, Yu Aoi is in it (further fuelling Tsukamoto’s obsession with skinny women) and she made the 80mins runtime worthwhile

あなたへ / Dearest
2012, Yasuo Furuhata

Prison officer Kurashima travels 1200km across Japan to scatter his wife’s ashes in the sea near her hometown.

zzz

A very good slow, quiet and even cozy road trip film. While on the road and also at his destination, Kurashima meets various people and learns a bit about their lives, while also coming to terms with his wife’s death. There are flashbacks to their relationship, but it’s not a cheesy romance film.

As expected, the journey takes us across some beautiful scenery, and the stories told were all interesting. There were a couple of lighting issues (well, either they got the lighting wrong on location or used a green screen, not sure) but otherwise it does look mighty good.

The cherry on top was a surprise appearance (to me, because I hadn’t checked the credits in advance) by Haruka Ayase

Ken Takakura may have been too old to play Kurashima, but I thought this was a fine sendoff for “Clint Eastwood of Japan” after a brilliant career. He would pass away two years later from lymphoma, same as the wife’s character in the film.

網走番外地 / Abashiri Prison
1965, Teruo Ishii

Abashiri Prison is located in the coldest place in Japan. Two men, handcuffed together have escaped from the prison, one a yakuza (Shinichi), the other a petty criminal (Gonda), and although they hate each other they must work together if they are to evade capture in this harshest of climates.

zzz

I thought after watching Ken Takakura’s final film I should maybe watch his first as well, but sadly could not get hold of it. So then on to the next best thing: his breakthrough role towards stardom.

It’s a (loose) remake of The Defiant Ones, but also borrowing from a Japanese novel written by a former inmate at Abashiri Prison in the 50s.
I thought it was just okay, but the Japanese at least seemingly do not agree: this first outing spawned no less than 17 sequels, all starring Takakura

Two thirds of the film actually take place within the prison and are intended to make Shinichi a likeable character both by “present” behaviour and by giving us his unhappy background in flashbacks (successfully, I suppose) with only the last part covering “the great escape” - the actiony bits in this final act are quite cool, and of course the harsh wintry scenery of 北海道 is captivating - they weren’t necessarily aiming to show us the local landscape, more like they couldn’t avoid it

Acting is typical Japanese “flair”, borderline excessive. While they did not have the original’s black-dude-and-white-dude dynamics, the good-guy-bad-guy duo here still works.
A couple of nice tunes for the sountrack, dunno if they were written and performed for the film or if they were older ones (seemingly written in “praise” of the prison).

Not a bad watch as such, but I’m not keen on watching others from the series… although it seems the third installment is considered to be the best.

And then the 0.5 comes, quite unexpectedly, from a Hollywood flick

The Yakuza
1974, Sydney Pollack

Harry Kilmer, a retired PI, travels to Japan to rescue a long-time (shady) friend’s daughter who was kidnapped by the yakuza. There he enlists the help of Ken Tanaka, a retired yakuza who is the brother of Eiko, the woman Harry fell in love with after the end of WW2.

zzz

I think I’ve mentioned before that I’m not a fan of yakuza films, just as I am not a fan of mob movies.
So I approached this one with some caution, fully expecting it to be one I’d fall asleep during

But it was surprisingly good! …And kept me up and hooked throughout.
It’s a good story with multiple twists - one regarding the Americans rather predictable, another regarding the Japanese wholly unexpected -, plenty of action - a swordfight in the final act is extremely cool even better than those in (some) samurai films, and of course the cowboy will bring guns to a swordfight Face with hand over mouth -, superb acting from both Robert Mitchum - I liked him better here than in a lot of his earlier films - and Ken Takakura - doing what he does best, I suppose, the honorable yakuza.

One thing the film does well, I think, is in its attempt to explain the concept of 義理 - I had learned it here on WK as “sense of duty” and I guess I was vaguely aware of “giri” in general but didn’t make the association until last evening
(If someone unfamiliar with it wants to read the explanation on Wikipedia, I’d recommend skipping the “In popular culture” section on that page as it contains a major spoiler for this film.)

Harry and Ken are not friends - and by the end of the film we learn (together with Harry) the full mystery surrounding their relationship -, but Ken owes a debt to Harry and he will fulfill that obligation with no regard to its costs on his own self.

Although the camerawork can get a little hectic in the action scenes, it is still well shot throughout. The direction overall was also very good, I thought, especially considering Pollack had to work with both Americans and Japanese.
One minor “complaint” would be that perhaps Mitchum was too old compared to Takakura, as I guess they were supposed to be of approximately the same age but there’s a ~15 years difference and it shows, I’d say even later on Takakura had aged better than Mitchum. But it’s really more of an observation than a drawback, they were both wonderful and made for a great pair.

Another point of contention, and the only real one I had:
Harry is portrayed as the “white saviour” in the “past” of the film (a saviour from a situation he - or not Harry himself but his fellow conationals - created), and in its “present” he rather nonchalantly walks back in to collect the debt on this “saving” because of course it was not solely out of the goodness of the saviour’s heart. Maybe this wasn’t Pollack’s intention, but it is totally American, and it sounds rather familiar today what with a certain someone’s trade tarriffs talks being mingled in with debt collection on “the protection” given to some Asian countries, Japan included…

But anyhow… a very good film, underrated I think but it gets a “highly recommended” from yours truly.

[Akashelia]

@cezarL

(yes, the comma is included in the title; don’t ask me why)

But why??

[cezarL]

(plus some nonsense so I can reply)

[Akashelia]

[cezarL]

Eeeh… Circumventing the system, are we?
Go away!

[cezarL]

In what will surely be the most useful post in this thread:

I’ve not watched anything Japanese this week
(I did start one but haven’t finished it.)

[cezarL]

Three this week, only one good enough so I won’t have much to say.

旅猫リポート / The Travelling Cat Chronicles
2018, Kôichirô Miki

Satoru, a young man who can no longer take care of his cat Nana (male cat, the name translates to Seven) travels around visiting friends and relatives to find Nana a new home.

zzz

Amazon “recommended” the book to me, but I wasn’t sure so I watched the film as a test.
It’s cheesy with over the top acting designed for kids I guess, forcing (unsuccessfully, IMHO) various tearjerker moments that fail to impress.
I’ll pass on the book, thank you.
(I did not get on with the apparently also quite popular If Cats Disappeared from the World either, so take this with pinch of salt.)

Couple of observations, though:

• The Japanese don’t seem overly inspired in choosing cats’ names. I mean… 八 and 七?!? Did those take long to come up with?
• Alice Hirose does not hold a candle to her sister Suzu, neither in looks or in acting chops

自殺サークル / Suicide Club
2001, Sion Sono

When 54 high school girls throw themselves in front of a subway train it appears to be only the beginning of a string of suicides around the country. Detective Kuroda tries to solve the mystery, which isn’t as simple as he had hoped.

zzz

Oh dear, such a good mystery to begin with, only to be trashed by some very, very weird (to me) script decisions. Stupid singing sequences, literally hundreds of deaths, downright silly blood spatter (For “shock value”, I guess? Yeah… no.) and the conclusion made no sense at all to me, but by that point I already didn’t care anymore, just wanted it to be over. Oh. Yeah, it’s a commentary on the bad influence social media and pop culture have on young people… I think

ひき逃げ / Moment of Terror
1966, Mikio Naruse

The only child of a widowed mother dies in a hit-and-run. The culprit is the wife of a wealthy businessman, and they he arranges for their chauffeur to take the blame. Kuniko, the mother, wants to get to the bottom of it and desires revenge.

zzz

Final collaboration between Naruse and Takamine, and the director’s next to last film; that one - Scattered Clouds - would still star the lovely Yôko Tsukasa who plays a somewhat less likeable role here, that of the wife responsible for the hit-and-run.

It’s an unusually dark and lurid film for Naruse, almost like a shlocky take on Kurosawa’s High and Low. Adultery, bribery, blackmail, coverups, uncooperative witnesses, ideation of vengeful killing, even the effects of WW2… there’s plenty on show here quite far removed from the director’s usual humanist takes. And everything is wrapped up in a melodrama thriller with some Hitchcockian appeal.

Hideko Takamine is, as expected, excellent at portraying Kuniko’s turmoil. Whether just hinting at her inner conflicts or outright expressing them, she nails it all the time. Couldn’t have chosen a better actress in that period, methinks.

One interesting bit is the inclusion of a flashback to the aftermath of WW2 when Kuniko met her husband - that one is obviously footage from an older production, as Takamine is much younger; but I couldn’t figure out from which film it was taken.

Near the end there’s a decision (and subsequent action taken) from a character that left me dumbfounded; it is, however, very… Japanese… and not in a particularly good way.

Anyhow. Definitely not Naruse’s best, this one. But still a good watch, and not a bad start to the film-watching weekend after a so-so week. Hope it keeps up this way

[Akashelia]

@cezarL

旅猫リポート / The Travelling Cat Chronicles

The name of this one rings a bell, is it also a book?

[richardf89]

I haven’t been learning Japanese for long so it’s probably a complete waste of my time but I’m enjoying watching Pokemon Horizons in Japanese, even though I can’t understand anything. I was watching it in English, but figured I could just stick the original language one on and watch that instead in case it’s somehow useful for my learning.

[cezarL]

Yes, it’s a book adaptation. I did mention in comments…

[Akashelia]

I only read the comments if I’ve watched the movie already, otherwise I prefer to go in blind!

[cezarL]

Oh, I don’t include spoilers if I can avoid it. And if I cannot, I’ll still use spoiler tags and give some warning

(I don’t even watch trailers myself because some/most can be spoilery, however I’ll peruse user comments if the IMDb and LB ratings aren’t convincing enough )

[cezarL]

Not going to watch something Japanese this evening, so I might as well wrap “the week” early.

Watched four adapations of Keigo Higashino novels this week

First two are from the “Galileo” series. They were made 14 years apart, with the same actors playing the main characters. Somewhat surprising, the two men aged slightly worse than the woman, IMHO

容疑者Xの献身 / Suspect X
2008, Hiroshi Nishitani

A male corpse is discovered with a smashed face and burned hands. The police quickly determine the cause of death and indentify a suspect, who nevertheless has an airtight alibi. Detectives Utsumi and Kusanagi get some help from physicist Yukawa to solve the mystery.

zzz

The murder and culprit are shown to the viewers right off the bat, however the mystery lies somewhere else, and it’s a pretty damn good one.
Although there’s a smidge too much “genius” in the planning, it doesn’t feel at all over the top. The path to uncovering the truth is smooth and gradual, and fully believable - there’s no sudden revelation of a key piece of information that would require mental gymnastics. Also, the core motivation of the character in question is perfectly valid and even a little sweet, if a little misguided.

The acting is good and natural, even to Western viewers, and the production values are very good - it’s a cinema movie for sure, even though it was made during the run of a TV show with the same characters and actors (which I haven’t watched) it does not feel like an extended TV special.
Sure, it could have maybe been some 10-15mins shorter but it’s perfectly fine as is.
I’d go slightly higher than the IMDb rating, closer to an 8 than to 7.5.

沈黙のパレード / Silent Parade
2022, Hiroshi Nishitani

A man suspected of murdering a young girl is released due to a lack of evidence. He begins taunting his victim’s family but is soon found murdered. The same suspect was investigated in another murder of another girl many years prior, but also avoided prosecution - that cold case is still haunting detective Kusanagi, and he and Utsumi once more enlist the help of Yukawa to solve the current case.

zzz

Now this one… it decidedly was not as good as the other film
The mystery is too convoluted (with a whiff of Murder on the Orient Express but with its own set of twists and turns so it does feel “original”) and some things feel contrived, the acting is over the top, there are some extremely cheesy parts to it that make it feel like a film aimed at kids and family (weirdly, considering the grim subject matter) and the production is that of a made-for-TV movie.
And too long… could have easily shaved off 20 maybe even 30 mins off it.
The IMDb rating is probably on point here.

One thing that bothered me a little across both was that Utsumi was treated rather disparagingly by male characters. I guess this was meant to bring some “funny” moments to the flicks, but they mostly missed the mark, for me.

Next two are from the Masquerade series. As far as I know the only two made.
Different characters, different setting, different style.

マスカレード・ホテル / Masquerade Hotel
2019, Masayuki Suzuki

The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) is on the trail of a serial killer, who left coded messages with each victim indicating the GPS coordinates of where the next murder will take place. This leads them to Hotel Cortesia as the location of the next possible murder. To prevent it and catch the killer, detective Nitta goes undercover among the hotel staff, pairing with actual hotel employee Yamagishi.

マスカレード・ナイト / Masquerade Night
2021, Masayuki Suzuki

When the MPD receives an anonymous letter indicating that a murderer will be present at the New Year’s party to be held at Hotel Cortesia (a masquerade ball, naturally ), detective Nitta once more goes undercover and attempts to identify the culprit and the informant, aided once more by Yamagishi.

zzz

I’m lumping these two together as they’re quite similar in delivery.
Where the other two films gave full focus to the mysteries to be solved, here they take backseats to side stories unfolding at the hotel - more so in Hotel (where the mystery is maybe 20% or so?) than in Night (where it’s all more balanced, maybe half-half).
These are really love letters to that Japanese work culture in general, and to the hopitality business in particular… (as a character points out a few times, if I made it out correctly: 客ではなく、お客様です) altough I kinda doubt that every Japanese kid’s dream is to become a fully-dedicated ホテルマン (nope, no dedicated term for “hotel woman” it seems), as the films may try to convince us. Although yeah, they also take jabs at the ridiculous demands and expectations of customers guests

Both productions are lavish and the hotel is lovely… weirdly these reminded me a bit of Downton Abbey, maybe also because of some of the “grandiose” score used.

The background mysteries themselves are quite convoluted, even a little difficult to keep pace with - there are a lot of unfamiliar names to keep track of throughout and I’m not sure the subtitles translation was perfect (and the Japanese was too fast and too difficult for me to follow, that darn sonkeigo!). Well, frankly… they are rather ridiculous when finally solved - no, they most definitely did not need to go through all that trouble just to kill some people! Rolling on the floor laughing
The side stories are interesting enough, if a smidge too cheesy at times… the usual Japanese approach, I guess.
The acting is good, with the overall style being that of anime/manga.

The above may not sound like much, but the truth is when everything is put together, it results in packages that wre actually really fun, mixing mystery, drama, sweetness and (light) comedy. Well above the IMDb rating, for me. Time well spent, I say!

I understand there are two more books in this series. While I’m not interested in reading any of these, I certainly wouldn’t mind watching future adaptations if they’ll make ‘em
That’s also because the two leads had great chemistry!
Takuya Kimura (who was the Japanese dude in 2046 - I did not recognize him ) seems to be some girls’ favourite nad not only in Japan, judging by some comments I saw on IMDb and LB.
Masami Nagasawa (Our Little Sister, Mother) was lovely… although I do prefer her with long hair

[Akashelia]

@cezarL

Watched four adapations of Keigo Higashino novels this week

Oh cool! I’ve read 容疑者Xの献身 / Suspect X and マスカレード・ホテル / Masquerade Hotel, will read the first sequel of Masquerade this summer (there are 4 books so far as you wrote, I think one of them is a collection of short stories, so not surprised that it’s not the same characters)

[cezarL]

Yeah, I’m content with skipping all these books, but the films were (all but one) fun!

[Akashelia]

We also agreed with the club when we were done with reading the first one, that there was no need to rush for reading the other ones but I already bought all of them physically, so I will read them eventually, maybe 1 every year is fine!

[cezarL]

Right, so… I think I’ll shift my weekly posts to Friday mornings… just in case, who knows, someone might actually find them useful and will pick something for their weekend movie watching

I did watch a couple this week, but first a TV limited series, since I’ve run out of Kore-eda films

阿修羅のごとく/ Asura
2025, Hirokazu Kore-eda

In 1979 Tokyo, four sisters with distinct personalities uncover their aging father’s affair, causing their happy facades and bottled-up emotions to slowly unravel.

zzz

This one is a remake of a 1979 NHK drama (which I haven’t watched) but as far as I can tell it’s faithful to the original material… as in it didn’t feel like it was “revised for modern sensibilities” and whatnot. Husbands are cheating on their wives, wives suspect (or even know) the infidelities but accept them in the interest of preserving “harmony” (or the status quo)… until they don’t.

There’s plenty of humour on show here (somewhat unsual for Kore-eda) and very good one at that even from a Western perspective, but it’s perfectly balanced by his usual serious, adult, drama and (of course?) some heartfelt gut punching sprinkled throughout for good measure.

The relationship dynamics between the sisters is so, so, so well done.
The series gives off strong [Our Little Sister] vibes in how the four work together, I wouldn’t be surprised to some day learn that Kore-eda made the actresses spend a few weeks together before filming started, much like he did with the actresses in that film. Not once do you get the impression that they did not grow up together, or simply putting on an act.
And their natural acting is complemented nicely by the man’s usual excellent directing across the whole cast, and keen eye for compositions. It’s just a joy to look at!

And of course the big elephant in the room: it sports something akin to an “NBA dream team” cast
Suzu Hirose is gorgeous (a maybe “simple” role in the first two thirds, but she gets to shine later on), Yu Aoi can’t hide her beauty while dealing with maybe the most difficult role to pull off, Machiko Ono absolutely nails the more complex and mature role, and I even liked Rie Miyazawa who otherwise is not among my favourites.
Plus the excellent support they get from the likes of male veterans like Masahiro Motoki and Jun Kunimura

It’s a wild and wonderful ride through its 7 hour-long episodes, this. A couple of threads are intentionally left dangling but that’s not a problem, it’s up to the audience to decide what happened next (no, there won’t be a season two).
Well… I sure would have liked a few more episodes, but simply because I wanted more time in this company.

I had planned to watch it over the whole week, one episode a day but ended up going through it over two days
Highly recommended, in case it wasn’t obvious.

And then since I didn’t get enough of the leading ladies in Asura, I turned to some of their films
First, Machiko Ono, some 16-17 years younger:

殯の森 / The Mourning Forest
2007, Naomi Kawase

A young woman working at a retirement home takes an elderly man living there on an excursion into the countryside, but the two wind up stranded in the titular forest.

Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes 2007.

zzz

As the title might suggest, it’s all about loss and grief here, but also about letting go and looking for ways to move on.
Like Kawase’s other works, it’s not an easy one to get into and requires a certain mood and a lot of patience - it’s very slow and quiet, even in its most “intense” scenes.
The style here is much closer to Suzaku than it is to Still the Water or True Mothers. Kawase has a way of doing films that is difficult to compare with others… for this one, I’d say it reminded me a little of Kore-eda’s Maborosi and Distance.

The “plot” is barebones, but I’ll go into light spoiler territory to set the stage (not everything is made clear in the first few minutes):
Machiko is a young caregiver at a retirement home, grieving the death of her son and feeling guilty about it. Shigeki is a patient with dementia (due to which he has a childlike behaviour that “attracts” Machiko), still mourning the death of his wife Mako 33 years prior (Machiko with the same kanji - another link between the characters).
The two will slowly bond in the first half of the film, connected by their losses, and in the second go on a journey of redemption within the depths of the forest.

It’s a firmly Japanese film, rooted in their respect of and care for the elders, the importance of family and lineage, and certain religious beliefs around death and the afterlife.

The cinematography is wonderful (although the always handheld camerawork, documentary-style, can get too shakey and distracting at times), the sound design is very effective (minimal score, nature’s sounds both quiet and raging envelop the viewer), the acting is raw and natural (with all the good and bad that brings).

All these aspects making for a haunting, deeply emotional experience… if (and that’s a rather big if) “it clicks” with you.
Or it could very well leave you totally cold and extremely bored… it’s really a tricky film to recommend, you either resonate with Naomi Kawase or you don’t.

Second, Yu Aoi, a whopping 24 years younger (unbelievable, really… as these days she looks like she’s still in her 20s).

リリイ・シュシュのすべて / All About Lily Chou-Chou
2001, Shunji Iwai

Charts the troubled teenage years of students Yūichi Hasumi and Shūsuke Hoshino, exploring the shifting and complex power dynamics of their relationship against the backdrop of Yūichi’s love for the dreamy and abstract music of pop star Lily Chou-Chou.

Now my take on this one is certain to ruffle some feathers, @Malinkal ‘s at the very least but likely others’ too. Feel free to ignore the ramblings below

zzz

Well… it had to happen sooner or later. It wasn’t quite a DNF, but I did fast-forward through most of it.

First, I didn’t really know what it was about going in, and I find this Japanese “passion” with extreme school bullying really weird, downright disturbing and… I just don’t have any interest in it. Give me Our Little Sister or I Wish school kids, not this miserable shlock

Dunno, maybe we live (or used to live, in my school days) in dreamland over here where kids are not necessarily nice but definitely not mean to each other.
But if that’s how it truly is for kids there… something’s really, really wrong with that country and I may have started to learn the wrong language

Second, it is not only shot fully handheld (and shaking) but also the guy/gal who held that camera almost never once held it level, it was practically always slanted. What was up with that!?!? Should have been fired after the first 10mins, if you ask me

Third, the damn “clickety clanking” (as someone else put it) of keyboard typing and the resulting text overlays, just superfan garbage for a fictional artist spewed by deranged kids. Extremely annoying and ultimately empty (for me).

Fourth, Yu Aoi (who here is but a teenager) gets blackmailed, prostituted and finally killed. How can you do that to sweet, kind, lovely Yu Aoi?!?!
To be honest, I didn’t immediately recognize her when she first showed up, only when I heard her voice That’s because when she was 15 or so, she was… almost plump <gasp!>

Anyway… there was nowhere near enough of her in this one. Now I gotta find another another

But the soundtrack was fine, I guess?
I loved Iwai’s Love Letter and Last Letter but this one didn’t even get close to those. Did not need to get made, IMHO

However, it does have very high ratings on both IMDb and Letterboxd, so…