He Won't Kill, She Won't Die (2019)

Definitely not what I expected

When I first found out about ‘He Won’t Kill, She Won’t Die’, the summary made me think ‘oh, just another edgy teenage romance huh’. But I loved what a delightful surprise this was.

The plot of this movie isn’t anything extraordinary. The film followed three stories— an unfriendly guy who always tells others to die and a suicidal girl, a girl struggling with boyfriends who never actually seem to like her for who she really is and her friendship with a studious girl, and a determined girl who never gets tired of confessing to her crush despite the fact that she always gets rejected by him. Sounds uninteresting? Well, sometimes a film doesn’t need to have an outstanding story in order for it to be good, and this one is an example.

With a mesmerising cinematography, what this film does capture most correctly is the emotions and the feels of each scene. What makes this film so special is how it managed to execute this simple plot with in-depth characters and a great storytelling. The acting is really good too. This film surely reminded me of why I actually loved watching Japanese films the most.

Overall, a solid 9.0/10 for me. The rewatch value is low because it’s not really the kind of film that’s rewatchable, but not all good movies are worth a rewatch as the first times tend to give you feels that you might not feel the time you re-watch it. Thus, I highly recommend this film to everyone :)

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I don't know why, but no one can do these types of stories like the Japanese. And Shakespeare, apparently. Even knowing part of what was coming, I still got so invested in the main couple. It was just really beautiful and so hard. And very unfair, but that's life, you know, and that's the sense I got from this drama, the push to still move forward even when everything in you wants to just give up because the pain seems so bad.

I want to say that I don't really care about the other 2 sets of characters, but that's not entirely true. Their storylines intersect with the main couple in interesting ways so they're sort of necessary. But I really couldn't stand Kyapiko. I get why she is the way she is, but that doesn't make me like her any better. She and her bff Jimiko were the only ones I didn't care for. Everyone else was amazing, and I have to give extreme kudos to Shotaro Mamiya and Hinako Sakurai for their performances. Outstanding, by far, and the main reason why this movie lingers in my memory and emotions.

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