Year: 2008
Length: 125 minutes
Director: Izuru Narushima
Main cast:
Kii Kitano as Aki Nishimura
Kento Hayashi as Minoru Tachibana
Takao Osawa as Jo Oki
Shoko Fujimura as Kyoko Okuda
Sachiko Sakurai as JunkoMisuki
Getting close to completing a watch of all Kii things, she needs to start putting out more for us or having a few of the unsubbed dramas and movies start getting subbed. Not all have been fantastic watches, this one wasn't but they've all been interesting and enjoyable, Kii really steals the scenes when she appears in anything. Bit of a tale of 2 movies this watch was, first half was really solid and fast paced but that pace really slowed down in the second half and dragged the film down a bit too, perhaps it would have been better to shave 10 or more minutes from the film.
Kii plays the character of 16 year old Aki who has been best friends with Minoru since childhood. Besides being friends Aki has also been the protector of Muniru, he's a bit of a wimpy person who can't defend himself while Aki is the complete opposite, she's a really good fighter and one fireball, over the years she constantly has to save Minoru form getting beaten up. Though she's a real tough young lady Aki has also grown into a very attractive female, so much that many of her schoolmates want to go out with her but they never get the chance to ask her out. One reason they think that happens is Minoru, most think the two have been dating because they have been so close to each other over the years but the 2 of them dating has never happened and neither one of them, least at the beginning of the film, have really given any thought about it. Minoru has been getting bullied badly because the guys who want to date Aki think he's standing in the way, one day he is getting beaten up when he gets saved, not by Aki but by an ex-boxer.
The ex-boxer named Oki also owns a boxing gym which Minoru then starts training at so he can defend himself, he is quite serious about it too. However it does come out through the movie that the main reason for him learning how to box is also to 'defeat' Aki in a battle, he does feel quite inferior to her because of the way she has to keep saving him from getting beaten up. All is going somewhat well in his training when out of the past a schoolmate who had moved away now has returned to school and that's Kyoko. He had no idea that she had and still does have a huge crush on him, even though she gives out big hints about the way she feels about him it flies right over his head. But Kyoko still tries to get closer to him and she ends up being his biggest supporter in his training, she too also thinks that him and Aki were going together which had left her very jealous, that feeling she had never went away even though her and Minoru did end up getting closer.
This is already getting long and hadn't planned on that, quite a simple movie so it shouldn't have needed too long of a recap. But the above was mainly from the first half of the movie where more interesting things happened, the pace just crawled to a halt in the second half. Forgot to mention too that Aki also started to train to be a boxer, she was good and really tried but so many of her fighting skills were ones you can't use in the ring thus she trained so, so hard to be a top boxer. Second half of the film Oki had a much bigger role along with his ex-girlfriend who suddenly popped up and was appearing in a film which some of it was going to be filmed at his boxing gym. Their old relationship and perhaps starting a new one was the main reason the film suffered so bad in the second half, the two together were just so boring, their scenes were way too long and nothing really happened in them, made me yawn a time or two. One other semi plot that didn't come to a conclusion was the budding relationship between Minoru and Kyoko. The two of them were really getting close, so close she practically threw herself at him, he refused which hurt her but it didn't seem as though he hated her because of that but we never see her again after that scene, thought Kyoko's character was a big plus in the movie, wished she was around to the end.
Skipping a bit fast forward here to keep this somewhat short and not to bore you too much Minoru's dream finally comes true, that was to finally have a battle with Aki. His fighting skills had improved but hers did too and at the conclusion of the film the two start duking it out. Minoru was always afraid to hit someone but he didn't pull any punches here and really did a number on Aki though in return she hurt him quite a bit too. The fight was really a draw, unsure if Aki gave it her all though, Minoru was much better at fighting but still couldn't compare with Aki. Aki though conceded the fight to him saying he was the winner but both ended up on the ground too hurt to move, mainly it was a victory for him in the sense that Minoru finally gave it his all, think in the future any bullies will be surprised when they try to get the best of him.
That's about all that happened or at least the major points of the film. Left out a lot of Oki's and Junko's relationship scenes as they were too boring to talk about and really hurt the movie. Overall it's worth a watch, second half did slow down too much but the last 10+ minutes redeemed it a bit. Kii was fantastic in the film, actually too she wasn't in as many scenes in the second half which made the film much less interesting, also a lot duller as her character was something else. Would recommend this film even though it did drag for too long, a Kii fan should definitely see this, my final grade for this would be a 7.5/10, first half though would have had a 8.5 rating. Next two posts have many screenshots of everyone from the film, few of the details that were left out of the recap should be in the screenshots, I like posting a huge amount of them as sometimes it makes it easier for others to follow the story.
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