This review may contain spoilers
I really wanted to like this film but in reality it was rather boring. Nothing much going for it plotwise and very slow moving. Not to mention a few alarm bells throughout the film that I cant believe some are willing to gloss over. First is, she's in love with her own uncle? That was extremely off putting for me and sort of glossed over - no one was overly bothered by this issue? I'm not going to complain about it in the sense of that I'd wish they had never written it in, I don't mind flawed /eccentric characters but what does worry me is the effect it has on the wider audience. This is the second time in a Japanese film/tv show I have seen a young girl who has developed romantic/even sexual feelings for her own blood related uncle. I rlly hope this is a fluke and isn't becoming some trend in Japanese cinema where young innocent girls are depicted as often having innapropriate fantasies/feelings towards authority/father/family figures - because its just plain wrong. In both dramas/films it was never really seen as much of a problem either - which is where my problem with it comes into play - because what does that teach an audience?
OK that part of the rant is over. The second part is - our male lead gets rejected, they agree to be just friends, she falls asleep whilst out with him.. and what does he do? He kisses her. A complete violation of her space and trust in him, not to mention it is essentially sexual assault. Yes, he is shown to feel incredibly guilty and ashamed of it - which is better than the uncle issue but that doesn't make it ok. What is worse is that they write her character as if she enjoyed it and wanted it to happen? Which just isn't the case in most real life scenarios, at all. It again just puts out the message that when a girl says "no" she really means yes.
There was also a scene where he pushes his own mother which wasn't the greatest thing to see character wise but I'll stop here.
OK that part of the rant is over. The second part is - our male lead gets rejected, they agree to be just friends, she falls asleep whilst out with him.. and what does he do? He kisses her. A complete violation of her space and trust in him, not to mention it is essentially sexual assault. Yes, he is shown to feel incredibly guilty and ashamed of it - which is better than the uncle issue but that doesn't make it ok. What is worse is that they write her character as if she enjoyed it and wanted it to happen? Which just isn't the case in most real life scenarios, at all. It again just puts out the message that when a girl says "no" she really means yes.
There was also a scene where he pushes his own mother which wasn't the greatest thing to see character wise but I'll stop here.
Was this review helpful to you?