Since I was in the midst of a semestral break, a friend of mine recommended this film for me just to kill time. "Koizora" in English means "Sky of Love". Judging by its title, we can be pretty sure it's going to be a typical love story. But as the saying goes, we can't judge a book by its cover. So I did spend my two hours and a half watching and wondering if ever this movie was all worth the aggressive persistent of my friend and the lengthy time it took me to download it.
First impression?
Both the actor and the actress look cute. haha Seriously, I think the film did a better job making the characters look pretty in every scene than creating the plot.
Now, let's talk about the the outer core of the movie: the characters and the plot. The film involves a first year highschool student named Mika whose cellphone got lost but was found in the school library by the help of an unknown caller- who is revealed as "Hiro" later on the film. And so this started a phone call conversation between Mika and someone she barely knew and this continued until Hiro decided to meet with Mika in the school.
Now the later part of the story saddened me. Knowing the fact that they actually had started dating the first time they met each other. They cut classes together and Hiro even invited Mika to his house and there happened what I think what most couples do (alone in a house). Their relationship seemed to fast-forward throughout the film. I mean, can you just imagine Mika losing her virginity to someone she just knew for less than a month? In reality, I know it happens to some people, but I know both the director and producers can do so much better than that. I also think that it can influence younger viewers, like they are saying it's okay for them to do it.
Next is about the school library- their so-called favorite place. This actually surprised me because it's suppose to be a public place but I can barely see students hanging around it. And plus, Mika had once again shared a sexual encounter with Hiro in that same place. I mean, isn't it foolish to witness a couple making love inside a school library and plus the fact that it happened in daylight- not during sunset or even evening. Weren't they also thinking that they're in a school library? Perhaps some people think it's cute to see that particular scene where two cute people are doing something inappropriate in their age. I know they can do better than that! They could've done it in a house, hotel or anywhere romantic, but just not in a place where they could easily get expelled from school. And the funny thing is, no one did notice them. Where were the librarians or any staffs? Where were they?
Enough of my rambling here.
Wait.
Although I think both the actors and actresses portrayed the emotions very well. I will be honest. They made me cry at some point, and also laugh here and there at some happy moments. The movie itself was like Nicholas Sparks' "A walk to remember", but instead of the girl having a cancer, it's the boy. So Hiro is the unfortunate character here. However, the story seems pretty obvious at some points- I mean, isn't too cliche' for Hiro to avoid Mika so that she wouldn't be sad of his dying situation? Have we always noticed that on movies? It feels as if some scenes were overused that it was already tad boring and came off as predictable as it could be.
And of course, I almost forgot to say this. Mika got raped during their first date. It was because of Hiro's exgirlfriend, Saki, whose jealousy resulted to paying three boys to raped Mika. Poor her. But this scene also bothered me due to the fact that both the couple decided to meet-up in a place where there are even no buses or cars passing through it. Imagine an empty grassy field- that's where they were supposed to meet- with no people even present or even pets. And then as Mika was waiting for Hiro to come, she got kidnap and got raped. And the day ends when Hiro found her and knew about the incident. Of course, as a boyfriend, he got so angry he punished both Saki and the three hired men. Now this is probably one of the sweetest moment in the scene, but I got upset of Hiro's answer when Mika asked him how he found her. And he replied,"This is the power of my love."
Seriously, I wouldn't feel any butterflies in the stomach if a guy would say that one to me. It's just so unrealistic and way too cheesy. I would demand some real straight answers. I bet the scriptwriter used that line just to prevent or cheat for Hiro's going-to-be long explanation... if ever he did say the right answers.
Whoop. It seems that this would take long if I won't stop it. Just be noted that there are some parts where I haven't actually explained or shown well enough.
All in all, I gave this film 7/10. It's inspiring and there are also a lot of lessons we can learn, and I'm happy to say that it can uplift anyone's mood as they get into the ending. I think I can recommend this film to anyone, especially for those kind of people who's a fan of romantic films. And this came out as a bitter-sweet-tear-jerker movie I've seen this month, and the film has succeeded its mission for the viewers to get emotional and just cry every little sad scenes... but then again, for me some were a bit unrealistic and everything paced quickly.
Peace out!
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