An interesting watch

In classic Japanese style, they just picked the most unique story from the bunch.

The premise itself is very interesting. The drama portrays the consequences of going against social norms and loving someone you shouldn't. The portrayal is as real as it gets yet beautiful in its own regard. The love between the leads is something that I would consider to be as true and real as it gets. As in the male lead, he feeling of love and the emotions for a teenager are very well expressed and thoughtfully portrayed and play an important role in the story(as it should). For the teacher, she really played the role of a responsible teacher and adult yet occasionally getting swayed by her emotions which is a very real thing. People might dislike the male lead's mother due to her being such a strong resistance in the story, however her character was a very real depiction of a real life mother(specially a single mother with a single child).

The cinematography is classic japanese, simple yet beautiful and always revolving around life.
The music though is really good and adds to the overall feels of the story and also makes it memorable for a long long time.
Excellent production quality.

Overall the story is worth experiencing. If you have some spare time, or you are in search of something unique, give this a go and you will definitely like it(if not love it).

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Tries too hard to recover its own mess

The premise itself is pretty interesting and the backstories of each character are well established and play vital roles in the story. The first few episodes that lay down the groundwork are fine but towards the later part, the story kinda becomes a mess and kinda hard to keep track of all the cases/investigations going on.
Personally I find the director's or writer's decisions pretty questionable as they lead to multiple plot holes or rather "plot-conveniences" which are kinda outta nowhere.
The drama kinda tries to portray the ML to be somewhat of a genius. But following the events of the drama it's pretty clear that he's nowhere near that status. Instead he frequently endangers his allies in some gamble that has extremely low odds of happening, yet they happen (plot convenience lmao). He also doesn't take the antagonist seriously enough even though he's evil af and can kill anyone without batting an eye. The ML takes multiple Ls yet never actually mends his ways to prevent past mistakes.
Also the drama tries too hard to portray the nephew as some sort of important character even though he is the most underachieving person in the entire setting.
The ending is clearly rushed with the absence of any real climax. The good guys beat the bad guys within just a few minutes and nothing much is shown as how they did it or any buildup whatsoever.
Overall the drama begun as a promising one but went downhill and never recovered. The music was nothing much memorable. Perhaps acting was the strongest point in the entire series.

I wouldn't recommend watching this unless you have waaaay to much time to spare or are a big fan of any of the actors.

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True to life

The movie beautifully yet realistically portrays the life of seven friends from a small town and how they go to Tokyo for a better life, how they mature over time as they face the cut throat competition of a large city and the harshness of life.

The initial premise of the movie could have been better to give a better overview of the friends and their relationships and how they are held together as a group. However, the movie frequently flashbacks to the past to show certain significant moments in the character's life.
The movie very realistically portrays how people from small town in search of opportunities can easily go astray in life once they set foot on a megacity and can get easily overwhelmed ultimately leading to a bad end. It also portrays that simply having talent won't cut it in today's world, and even if you can survive that, you simply just can't do things as per your wish.

Overall the movie might feel depressing(it also is) to most people, that's mostly because of its accurate representation of real life. The movie can be thought of as a coming of age movie, and i believe the target demographic is the late teens to twenties as they will find the movie very relatable.

If you fall in that demographic, its a great watch, but avoid watching when you are feeling depressed or sad. Recommended.

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The story revolves around a girl who lost her family due a tsunami. And even after like 10 years, she still hasn't gotten over it. And that's clearly evident from the girl's mannerism. The cast for the girl was right on spot for this particular role, her natural look+ make-up+ acting totally brought out the misery she was in throughout the story. Since the girl was in her teens, we get to see a kinda rebellious phase of her life, as she ran away from her aunt's home in hopes to visit her original home. Throughput this journey she ends up meeting several people who share the same misery as hers, losing their loved ones due the tsunami or some related cause. Everyone of them tells their story to her, but she never really returns any meaningful response. She goes on aimlessly and puts herself in pretty dangerous scenarios but somehow strives though with the help of some kind people.

But that's pretty much it. The story literally just covers the sorrow of this girl and the people she meets along the way, kinda portraying how even with all that sorrow and misery they are still striving on and persevering for a hopefully better tomorrow.

Towards the end, when the girl eventually gets to visit her original home she does express her sorrow and kinda emotionally breaks down as expected but somehow it doesn't feel as emotionally moving, maybe that's because the girl expresses so less throughout the movie that we literally never get to know much about the character apart from her sorrowful side.

The actual wind phone is mentioned at the very last part of the movie and actually been shown for like 5-10 mins, even though the movie is literally called 'The Wind Phone'. So that didn't particularly make sense to me.

Overall the movie does feel pretty sorrowful yet empty, going over the themes of loss and perseverance yet never fully committing to expressing something truly valuable and unique to the viewer.

The cinematography was okay-ish. The music not so good. The screenplay was weak. Perhaps, the acting was the only strong point of the movie. Clearly the execution didn't quite catchup with the imagination in this case, in my opinion.

Really not good enough for recommendation.

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A love story spanning different worlds

The story begun as everything normal yet unexpectedly perfect but soon the truth is revealed.
The pacing of the story was just perfect. A perfect beginning, a perfect ending. Story-wise, I have no complaint.
Acting was good, Nana Komatsu particularly stood out from the rest.
Classic Japanese Cinematography and direction, totally loved it!
Also the music compositions and direction, absolutely top notch, memorable and crafted around the story!!
Great production quality as well.

If you are looking for a bittersweet romance drama movie with a twist, this is it!! Even if you aren't looking for it, watch this anyway if you have the time!!

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Interesting but felt short of expectations

The premise itself feels interesting and the movie also builds a somewhat strong premise. However the premise of sci-fi soon turns into a romantic ride but doesn't fully commit to either. Overall the story felt kinda cut short due to time restraints, so going for series approach would have been better. Also, the ending, although conclusive, felt kinda abrupt. There are multiple plot holes as well which are nothing groundbreaking but I would have liked for them to be addressed in a proper manner, but once again that can be excused due to the time constraints in a movie.
Acting wise everyone does an okay job nothing extraordinary. Cinematography is excellent, classic japanese style, expressing the mundane-ness of everyday life even while capturing a totally different story.
The music certainly stands out if you are a western classical lover like me. The music direction was on point and so were the compositions. Totally loved it!
All in all if you have 2 hrs to spare, a fan of Kento Yamazaki or just an lover of Japanese cinema, give it a go.

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