Koizoro starts out pleasant enough, seeming to be a gentle coming-of-age romance. The two leads are attractive and surprisingly young (both were teenagers when the movie was made) Japanese idols, with charisma and ease in front of the camera. Unfortunately neither of them can emote, despite the soap-opera/Lifetime movie melodramatics Koizoro cycles through. What started out as a possibly understated romance where high school freshmen good-girl Mika and bad-boy Hiro fall in love, degenerates into a second-rate tearjerker within half an hour, as Mika (Aragaki Yu) is gang-raped by a group of boys paid by Hiro's ex-gf, becomes pregnant, miscarries, and dumped. Mika eventually meets another guy totally different from Hiro but of course plot devices contrive to draw the two former lovers together.
Even though this movie has been described as a tearjerker, I didn't really cry at all because the lead actors did not give any pathos to the roles. Aragaki Yu and Miura Haruma are still superficial actors, they're pretty to look at but they have no facial expressions, particularly Miura. The cheesy lines the male actor has to say don't help. Surprisingly, Koide Keisuke, as Mika's second love, also seems to be phoning it in. Keisuke is one of those young actors that seems to pop up in a background role in a lot of the popular Japanese movies. He's talented and usually gives a strong performance even in minor roles, but here he seems bored by the material, as was I.
The director doesn't let scenes play themselves out. Plot devices are introduced and resolved without giving time for the material to make an impact. Compared to other Japanese movies of this genre, the film is more frank about teenage sexuality but it has incredibly inept depictions of issues, like rape, divorce, cancer, etc.
Despite the plot flaws, it was hard for me to outright hate this movie. The cinematography is beautiful to look at. There are better films of this genre out there, though this is probably one of the better looking ones. Despite being set in the countryside, the high school students look like they stepped out the pages of Seventeen magazine. And the pacing does keep things moving, so you don't have to dwell on how awful a scene as at least.
Even though this movie has been described as a tearjerker, I didn't really cry at all because the lead actors did not give any pathos to the roles. Aragaki Yu and Miura Haruma are still superficial actors, they're pretty to look at but they have no facial expressions, particularly Miura. The cheesy lines the male actor has to say don't help. Surprisingly, Koide Keisuke, as Mika's second love, also seems to be phoning it in. Keisuke is one of those young actors that seems to pop up in a background role in a lot of the popular Japanese movies. He's talented and usually gives a strong performance even in minor roles, but here he seems bored by the material, as was I.
The director doesn't let scenes play themselves out. Plot devices are introduced and resolved without giving time for the material to make an impact. Compared to other Japanese movies of this genre, the film is more frank about teenage sexuality but it has incredibly inept depictions of issues, like rape, divorce, cancer, etc.
Despite the plot flaws, it was hard for me to outright hate this movie. The cinematography is beautiful to look at. There are better films of this genre out there, though this is probably one of the better looking ones. Despite being set in the countryside, the high school students look like they stepped out the pages of Seventeen magazine. And the pacing does keep things moving, so you don't have to dwell on how awful a scene as at least.