[Review] 100 Kai Naku Koto Movie Review (１００回泣くこと)

Hello my lovelies,

As the title of the movie said, I was sure to come out with puffy red eyes and knotted throat from sobbing in the cinema. I might not be the biggest baby while watching tearjerker, but I am easily moved. Yet I came out with nothing but frustration.

After the barely bearable Johnny’s lead in a movie called ‘Ore Ore (俺俺)’, I never thought another movie with a Johnny’s entertainment artist would get any worse. But surprise, surprise.

Synopsis
    A sweet and gentle young man, Fujii (藤井) who seemed very innocent and naïve was reunited with an old fling at a wedding. The only catch was he had a gap in his memory due to an accident occurred nearly four years before the story started.

    The young lady, Sawamura (沢村) appeared doubtful in the beginning. Unsure of whether if she should tell him about his lost memories and shoulder the consequences of hurting him and pushing him away or for her just to build a new beginning with him.
These two past lover’s path was crossed again and they were building a new relationship, a relationship which based on secrets and hidden feelings. Just as these love birds got it on their feet again with a brand new awkward love story, her secret came to claim it’s price.


<Spoiler>
    The reason for his accident was partly because of her. Fujii is a not a very vocal man. He was the kind that does not vocalize or even show that he cared and he has trouble showing Sawamura his true feelings for her.

    The day she told him she was getting a second opinion from another cancer institute about her womb cancer in her hometown, he stormed out the door and went to carve a ring for her. On his way back, waning to show that he would not care if she may never carry his child, her cancer could be a burden on both of them or anything that will soon challenge them as a married couple, he saw the love of his life was getting into a taxi alone without him.

    Of which, he lost his focus on the road and hit a moving car, which threw him quite a few feet from his bike and cause him his concussion. <end synopsis>

Personally, I have never read the novel and I would probably say, the novel is much better than the movie. This movie is supposed to be a screen play adapted from a novel and not a short story. Beside the actor (who I will be talking about in later paragraphs), I bet any drama club or independent student movie production could have done a similar or even a better job at both acting and directing the screenplay.

The main reason I even watched this movie was because I wanted to see Okura Tadayoshi (大倉忠義) in a film. Boy was I super disappointed. He is not a particularly excellent actor but I do enjoy some of his previous works such as Ooku (大奥), Hissatsu Shigotonin (必殺仕事人) and even 8Uppers (∞Uppers). Although the two mentioned movie and television drama is in a different genre, at least it shows that he is able to act.

Instead, in this movie he seemed like he was not even trying. Okura is never known for his tears and he might just be one of the people who hardly cries and his facial expression is always so opposite than his script, he could be doing a heavy and straight forward expression, yet his words are like blanks, or there are times his words had to mean so much, his voice holds so much substance yet his expression is like he was talking about noting, weightless and careless. Depending on a character he is playing this could both benefit him or make his character seems a little amateurish.

The opposite of Okura’s character Sawamura played by Kiritani Mirei (桐谷美玲) was not any better. Her character seemed a little melodramatic and sensitive, yet somehow the way she was acting it does not deliver the massage or even the emotion that she was supposed to be delivering. At some point of the story, it even felt like she was a little detached from her character and trying her hardest to fit in to the character itself, instead of acting it out.

The cinematography was bad to say the least. From the start of the movie it looks like a low budget indie movie with amateur or freshly graduated actors who is trying to make their mark in the C or D celebrity list. The stunt for the accident scene especially was horrible and very exaggerated. This movie was supposed to be a realistic chick-flick. I would understand if this was a science fiction or even a futuristic movie where regeneration was very possible, but a motorcycle accident does not throw a person as far as they had shown in the movie. What’s more amazing was that he escaped the accident with only memory loss, broken legs and a bandaged arm… I would expect more scrapes and bruises, I mean he did fell on an asphalt and not on a sandy beach.

Because this movie was lead by a Johnny’s entertainment actor it was obvious that the same artist or his band would also sing the sound track for the movie. In this case the sound track for the movie was provided by Kanjani8 (関ジャニ∞) called Namida no Kotae (涙の答え). For me the soundtrack sounds much better than the whole movie itself.

I am very sad to rate this movie a very bitter 1 out of 5 stars (1/5). If you are not a fan I would not recommend this for you. Also, if you love a good tear jerker, this might not cut it for you either. I would however recommend this movie to an avid fan of Kanjani8 and Okura Tadayoshi.

Love and Kisses

GWRL

P/S: I really do need to find a good Japanese movie from now on…