Ao Natsu (2018)

I watched this movie at a theatre in Tokyo today and really enjoyed it! It’s a charming, simple little film that’s perfect for a lazy summer day. Definitely don’t expect any award-winning plots or performances! This movie is ultimately a very typical Japanese high school love story and it’s going to unfold exactly how you expect. If you like that sort of thing, keep on reading!

Firstly, I’ve got to say that the filming location for this movie (apparently Mie prefecture) is absolutely gorgeous. This movie made me want to drop everything and move there ASAP! If you like movies set in rural Japan like I do, you will by default LOVE this movie for the scenery alone. One word for the cinematography: WOW!

The story itself is honestly nothing that hasn’t been done before. Tokyo girl (Rio) goes to the countryside for her summer vacation and falls head over heels for the local heartthrob. Lots of cute moments and clichés follow. In fact, this movie takes every possible “summer” cliché and throws it in: sunflowers, blue sky, festivals, fireworks, barbecues, swimming etc. you name it, it’s there. One thing I liked about this movie in particular (compared to other shoujo manga adaptations) is that this movie doesn’t get overly bogged down with lots of forced melodrama or antagonists. Problems are resolved pretty quickly and the overall pace is good.

This movie has a lot of young actors. Wakana Aoi is really good here and I liked her character. Rio was gutsy and knew what she wanted. Respect! Sano Hayato is a little less polished than Wakana but he still impressed me. At first glance he’s not conventionally handsome, but his mannerisms were surprisingly cute and he won me over for sure. Their chemistry together was pretty good too.

This is a shoujo manga story so it's not meant to be taken too seriously. It's unrealistic and dreamy but it has its charms for sure! Give it a try if you like summer romance!

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Light watch to brighten up your mood

I gotta say, I mostly started this because the title song of the movie is within my top 3 fav songs of all time. It was a really nice movie and really helped me feel better (I was feeling pretty sad when I watched it) Of course it's nothing groundbreaking or really well produced but sometimes, when you're in the mood for a movie where everything is bright and happy and nothing bad ever happens, this definitely is the movie you're looking for. It did make me a bit melanchlolic for summer because I watched this on a foggy, cold day in November but the romance and characters were really cute and the setting in a rural area seemed different from the usual Tokyo cityscapes you see in many other Japanese movies.

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