Love Me, Love Me Not (2020)

A manga adaptation that was ruined by the manga.

I was super excited about this movie because of the cast -- our #BestCP from I Want to Eat Your Pancreas (Kitamura Takumi and Hamabe Minami), plus Akaso Eiji (will admit that I don't know the other female lead).
However as the story got on I realized it was so full of typical shoujo manga/drama tropes that I would like jokingly name the most "tropey" plot development possibility and it would friggin' come true. Like it became a hilarious meme that I was predicting the characters' next line or the next camera scene. And the story did get really WTF as it went on...

However the directing is AMAZING. The way the story slowly unfolded and we started to see hints of what each character was thinking based on subtle facial expression hints, or hints in what they said, or random zoom ins of the camera... I really liked the whole process of trying to guess what would happen next. I looked up the director and found he was the same one who did Tomorrow I will Date with Yesterday's You, as well as Girl in the Sunny Place. I loved *both* movies when they came out, and I can see how they were done by the same director -- all movies featured a lot of foreshadowing and shocking (but predictable if you were tracking earlier scenes) plot twists.

Official theme song is by Higedan. I know the song from my Spotify playlist because I love their work for Confidenceman JP. The other BGM were also very nicely chosen and fit the theme. I would totes put the whole OST on repeat.

TL;DR: Watch it not for the ridiculous plot, but for the way the story is told to you. And extra points if you like the actors/actresses, because they really get to show off their skills in this one.

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Love Me? Love Me not...

Honestly, as this movie is based on Sakisaka Io's work, i really anticipate this one (and also Eiji san as main cast too) Firstly, i thought this one would be giving same vibe like Ao Haru Ride ans Strobe Edge but it didn't turned out like them. Yes the story is typical of romance japan's coming-of-age story, however the pace is really slow. I won't say that is bad thing but if you hate slowburn story, then this movie won't be your cup of tea.

The change of Rio and Akari's feeling are little bit off since it feels rushed cause of duration. The actors and actress did really well to convey their feelings and i really love how their expression say it all in some of scene. The cinematography is also done beautifully. It would be better if this movie is adapted as dorama instead.

Youth movie that talks about love and dream. A clinche one with slow burn vibe..

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