Poison Berry in My Brain (2015)

I loved this movie. I watched it because I knew the main actress Maki Yoko by face and I follow Furukawa Yuki and Kamiki Ryunosuke. I knew about the movie when it was in production but quite honestly had no idea what it was even about when I pressed play. I was pleasantly surprised by the storyline and had such a good time watching it. It's similar to the Disney move Inside Out. Her inner emotions battle it out and decide what she's supposed to do next. I like how awkward and relatable her character is and how realistic the reactions are with someone who is as awkward as she is in romantic situations.

I laughed a lot at this movie, I also had a lot of uncomfortable moments where I paused and didn't want to see what was going to happen next because I knew it was going to hurt. I didn't cry but I can say that when movies/ dramas make me pause a lot, it usually means I'm far too into the show and am emotionally invested.

Would I re-watch this? of course! I watched this without subs as soon as it hit the internet so I plan to re-watch when it's subbed and maybe more times after that because I enjoyed it so much.

The casting was perfect as far as I'm concerned. Furukawa Yuki was stunning as always with his mellow and somewhat uncaring character. Maki Yoko played the awkward turtle role very well. All the actors playing her inner thoughts or emotions had great chemistry.

I voted music rather low because I don't really remember the tracks that well so I guess they didn't leave any sort of impression on me, but I do remember that the mood of the scenes was always accurate.

Overall I recommend this movie to anybody who has ever experienced an awkward love confession or just being awkward around your crush.

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Poison Berry In my Brain

I was not actually expecting this movie to be this great or at least to actually have me satisfied with. I had been putting this story off since I have seen it on some site being uploaded and subbed. But since I have started liking Kamiki Ryunosuke, and remembering he is one of the casts here, and as well as Furukawa Yuki, I told myself I will give this a try and try to bear it at least a few minutes of it. But wow, it was actually great. The plot was interesting. Makes you really think that somehow, maybe, there are different characters inside your brain too. Because there are times you feel like when making decisions, you feel like there were people arguing and giving you pros and cons. Of course it is not literal like that, but somehow some conscience are fighting it out, helping you which to choose. So that is how it is in the story.
This movie also brought out different emotions on me. I feel like sometimes I wanna scream at Ichiko (Maki Yoko) or the ones inside her brain, specially at Ikeda, for always being pessimistic. And I love the child character in her and as well as Kamiki's character, the always positive one.
And oh of course, Yuki is always adorable. I love him here. This characters always suit him. But I hope he won't be typecasted in these kind of characters.

I give this movie a overall rating of 9.5. I would have given it a perfect 10 but well it would feel a little weird for me because I want a different ending to it.

Again this is one of the movies I think I could really recommend to people I know who enjoys or don't even enjoy Japanese movies. Because I am confident will also like it.

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Some interesting moments, but mostly forgettable

This is my first review to write here on MDL, but I had to write on as I just finished this movie and had looked forward to it after seeing the very high ratings it had received from other fans.

First off, let me just say that overall I felt like this movie was pretty pointless. It never made itself quite clear with a genre- it wasn't quite a romance, not quite a comedy, not quite slice of life, etc. As such, it felt a bit confusing since it couldn't seem it make up its mind as to what it was and didn't give viewers a clear emotion.

Second, while the male lead and a couple of the supporting characters did a good job acting with the material they were given, others left much to be desired. That's why I only gave an 8 for acting- some were good, but others were just not up to par. One of the supporting characters was unbelievably unlikeable and delivered 99% of her lines at a full blown yell. While it was supposed to go along with her character's personality, there are more ways to express anger and emotion that screaming at the top of your lungs. As such, it was irritating and annoying to hear so much screaming and noise throughout so much of the movie.

In addition, the female lead left some to be desired as well. Part of this was the acting but some of it was due to the story as well. I never felt connected to her as a viewer- there is not much background story ever given and viewers just kind of jump right into her life and the love story with absolutely no set up. (Literally the opening scene is the couple meeting) So therefore you get no time to know the FL and connect with her- so in essence you don't start rooting for her or cheering for her yet before she even meets this guy. As such, you don't really feel involved in their story or invested in it either.

The female lead didn't show a wide range of emotions either, which I feel like also detracted from the storyline which was actually quite basic and simple... not to mention short. Because so much of the film focuses on the people in her mind (who represent her inner thoughts) arguing, deciding what she should do, etc it feels like only half the film is actually about the couple and half is about the people in her brain. So is that enough time to really flesh out their love story? Not to me it wasn't.

(MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD)

In addition, I couldn't ever really care for the female lead either overall. Her insecurities (as represented in the people in her mind) were what caused the majority of her relationship issues. Yet, the movie acts like the male lead was actually the bad guy (he certainly did have some bad points of course, but she would overreact, lie, run away, etc all due to her insecurities and immaturity).

By the time you get to the end, you can tell clearly how it will end and the ending is so obvious and expected that I was highly disappointed and felt like I had pretty much wasted 2 hours of my time. The ending was no better than a some motivational Instagram account (you will understand once you watch it).

I gave the music an 8 because nothing stuck out as bad and the only time I did notice it was when it was bit too loud in the background over their voices. But overall, the music choices were decent. So nothing horrible there to take away from that rating.

If you like Yuki Furukawa, then I would recommend you watch this movie just once as his fan. But otherwise, there are much better movies out there.

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When I read the story i liked that there are some people in the heroin's brain whom discuss her actions and tells her what to do.
The actors were all good, except for the heroin. The heroin acts like she is a robot !! maybe its because of the actress. I gave a low rating for the acting because the heroin is the most person who appears on the screen -_-
In addition, the movie was a bit long and boring which made me skip a some parts at the end.
Anyway, i liked the ending, it is realistic
However, i will not watch again, since i do not like this kind of romance and  plot. 
Overall, i do not recommend it.

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Poison Berry in my Brain had a nice concept and an all star cast to support it. The movie actually reminded me of Inside out and Amelie. However, the only fun part of this movie was the debates of the five personas and probably a few of the romantic scenes that were steamy and cute. Other than that, the movie had some confusing parts, some boring parts and some so so parts. I did like the ending though. And the performances were really good. I would have liked if the personas were better introduced though, so we could have a better idea of how they will react in each situation. So, six and a half out of ten.

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