"He Won't Kill, She Won't Die" movie review part two

 Release Date: November 15, 2019 Length: 120 minutes  Director/Writer Keiichi Kobayashi

Main Cast:

 Hinako Sakurai as Nana Kano.... 18 year old senior in high school who is quite an introvert. She's also a young girl who constantly cuts her wrists but not to kill herself but to Nana her life wasn't worth living nor had any purpose until meeting Rei.

 Shotaro Mamaiya as Rei Kosaka.... 19 year old senior in high school who is repeating the final year but it wasn't because he failed as Rei is a very smart boy. Though good looking he could care less about the other girls in his class and was just so disinterested in life, that is until he met Nana and what an unlikely pair they were.

 The rest of the cast....

Yuri Tsunematsu as Jimiko.... 18 year old senior, older sister of Yachiyo. She's a very boring person who somehow became best friends with Kyapiko

Mayu Hotta as Kyapiko.... also an 18 year old senior who thinks she's the cutest girl on Earth. She constantly dumps her boyfriends before they can do it to her

Yumena Yanai as Nadeshiko.... high school freshman girl who is in love with Yachiyo

Yutaro as Yachiyo.... Jimiko's younger brother and the target of Nadeshiko's beating heart

Masaki Nakao as The Killer(?).... a teenage psycho who is really only in one scene but it's a very dramatic one towards the end

 If you didn't read part one would recommend doing so or at least the part about Nana and Rei as this post will be devoted to the pair who were the two main characters. Where we left off was with them quickly becoming friends however neither will admit it but the pair soon became inseparable though their relationship was definitely an odd but kind of charming one.

 What I never found out was what Rei was constantly looking at on his Smartphone. He wasn't playing games nor was he on any kind of social media site as he could care less about other people, Nana never once asked either what he was so addicted to on the phone. From the very first second this pair met they seemed to form into one person and they didn't need to say much as they knew what the other was thinking. For years Nana had been a wrist and arm cutter which made her the laughing stock of her class. It was never mentioned why but after the pair started seeing each other Nana practically ceased doing that to herself, would presume because she finally has someone in her life? Before I forget the pair's favorite lines to each other are 'I Want To Kill Myself' said by Nana and 'I'll Kill You' uttered by Rei or something usually along those lines.

 Of course though that would never happen, Rei has finally found the first person that is somewhat interesting to him and Nana would never have the courage to kill herself. We didn't see too much of either of their families, just their mothers on two occasions and both appeared to be such nice ladies so why were their children slightly screwed up? Above is Nana asking why Rei decided to repeat his senior year in high school and he really didn't give a concrete answer. I kind of felt he didn't want to enter the real world as he just doesn't like most people and wonder why as it appeared most others liked him, especially the girls in his class.

 The pair were on screen together for about 70% of the movie and their scenes were so slow moving. However there was something so intriguing about them and to me seemed they were closer after being together for a few months than married couples are after twenty years. So for the vast majority of the film we just watched the pair having their minimal conversations which outwardly may seem like they would put you to sleep but didn't in the least. Both Nana and Rei appeared to have had zero friends up until this point, she's so introverted it's easy to see why but as mentioned Rei seemed to have been a popular guy at one time and had excelled at soccer. The months began flying by and the pair's graduation from high school is drawing ever so closer.

 Rei does have plans on attending a university and was finally talking to Nana a bit more seriously about her future, does she want to attend the same school with him? That's probably impossible she said as she doesn't do well at school and to me it seemed Nana never really put any effort into her studies though she appeared to be a smart girl. But Rei had begun pressing Nana a bit more every day about her future and deep down that pleased her immensely that a person would care about her that much. Nana has finally realized that perhaps living isn't such a bad thing, she will start planning out her future more seriously knowing that Rei wants to be in it.

 So at the pair's final encounter they made plans on working the next day into getting Nana into a college, hopefully the one Rei will be attending. Sadly when I just said 'final encounter' that was to be true as the pair were never to see each other alive again. In two short scenes up until this point which was about the 85 minute mark there was talk about a teen psycho who had posted videos of wanting to kill his girlfriend. That boy remained nameless but killing his girlfriend was his goal but he needed practice so he chose a couple who were in love to see how it would affect the other half. Doesn't make sense but then again this young man was a bit off the wall. The person he chose to first practice on was Rei as he had been secretly following the pair around. When he left Nana for the final time in tow was this psycho who quickly caught up to Rei and began asking him odd questions. Rei told this creep to get lost or he would do some severe damage to him but it turned out to be the other way around.

 No need to go into too much detail as you can see what happened to Rei above as he was stabbed and slowly succumbed to his death. Not a very crowded city as no person passed by after the incident, said slow because in Rei's seemingly many final minutes he scrolled through his phone viewing pictures of Nana who was his first and only love. Just popped into my head right now but wonder why Rei never used his phone to call for help? Needless to say Nana was stunned but wasn't broken up as badly as she would have been in the past. Being with Rei so closely all of those months did improve Nana to no end but what helped her the most were her.... dreams?

 After Rei's death he began appearing Nana's dreams and they seemed so lifelike to her. Rei continued to give her some solid advice about her future and how to improve her life. But then Nana began wondering was it really him in her dreams or was she telling her own self things she needed to do to make her life better? Of course it was the second scenario and after a few nights Rei disappeared from Nana's dreams but I'm sure will never leave her memory for the remainder of her life. Many classmates attended the funeral and they began to see Nana in a different light. She had been ignored and put down endlessly by her mates up until this point but after Rei's death some of them began to treat her as an equal. Rei had been liked at school though he didn't care for people, her classmates probably started thinking Nana must be all right for a guy like Rei to fall for her.

 Life did change dramatically for Nana and in the film's final scene it was many months in the future. Nana finished high school and in a shock was attending a university, the one Rei wanted to go to? She also blossomed into such a fine looking young woman who seemed to radiate such confidence about life, no doubt because of her time with Rei. In that final scene Nana had stumbled upon a young girl who was a freshman in high school named Nadeshiko, discussed their encounter in the previous post. Nadeshiko had been rejected by her first love and was planning on cutting herself with a knife. But Nana talked with the girl and was able to convince her getting rejected wasn't the end of the world. As the two departed Nana headed off to her university with an invisible Rei in tow as the film came to it's conclusion.

 Thanks for reading these posts and it was nice to break the ice reviewing a movie after such a long gap, will have a few more reviews coming up. Usually don't like slow moving and bleak films as horror and thrillers are mainly what I view. But I really enjoyed this movie and especially the scenes between the two leads as they were so interesting and intriguing. Not a film that will get many repeated views but that doesn't mean it wasn't a fine film as it was.
 Seems I'm kind of a hard person to please as I rarely give extremely high grades for dramas or films, not often above a nine. For this movie will give a grade of 8.5/10 which is a solid number to me and would have been higher if one other mini story was cut out. Plenty of screenshots to help you follow the story better, gave most major details but didn't explain everything 100% as not to spoil it if you're planning on viewing it. Would recommend this film which was a bit bleak and slow but yet enjoyable, you can get this subbed movie at Irozukusubs.