Japanese title: パラダイス・キス 116 minutes
June 4, 2011
Directed by Shinjo Takehiko
Main cast:
- Kitagawa Keiko: Hayasaka Yukari
- Mukai Osamu: Koizumi Jouji "George"
- Yamamoto Yusuke: Tokumori Hiroyuki
- Igara Shunji: Isabella
- Omasa Aya: Sakurada Miwako
- Kaku Kento: Nagase Arashi
- Kato Natsuki: Asou Kaori
- Hada Michiko: Hayasaka Yasuko
- Takahashi Hitomi: Koizumi Yukino
- Ogi Shigemitsu: Nikaido Joichi
Notes:
- So many familiar faces!
- I haven't read the manga by Yazawa Ai it is based on nor watched the anime adapted from the manga. However, there is an AMV I've liked that uses the Paradise Kiss anime and I was wondering how the movie would handle some of the contents...
Review: +/-
Title: Paradise Kiss is the name of the fashion brand that Boy's created with his friends. They want Girl to wear their dress at their runway competition organised by their fashion school.
Girl: She's been studying since she was little to get into the best schools. She's actually not very good at it and she doesn't like it but her mother has been pressuring her. She has her own mind but she just doesn't know what she wants to be. (+)
Boy: Of course he's a Genius at fashion design (me? not convinced). He also has a dark magnetism at the beginning of the movie. (+ at the beginning, - at the end).
Other boy: Smart, good-looking, kind... perfect but bland. Girl's had a crush on him for years but he's never loved her back for reasons we learn in the movie even though I didn't care.
Plot/Relationship: The positive first: Girl and Boy have good chemistry.
However, the story really deserved to be told in a drama. Or more storylines/characters should have been cut. As it is, decisions happen too fast, things happen that should lead to developments but don't, characterisations suffer.
Moreover, Boy's character gets diluted so much that he becomes a cliché.
And, technically, it's a SPOILER, but I think it's more of a warning to those who know the manga or the anime: the ending has been changed. Be prepared. (-)
Other characters: They were more background than fully developed characters.
Funny factor? Not really.
Music: I only remember "Everthing gonna be alright" because that scene was memorable.
WTH: I don't know if it's as important in Japan to be tall, but it was hard to believe that Girl could have a career in modelling when she's always the smallest person in the room. + Some designs were quite ugly (my opinion for what it's worth) + you know I'm not really into a movie when I wondered where Girl left her suitcase.
Bottom line: I spend a nice moment watching this movie, Kitagawa and Mukai were good but the story deserved better than whatever the Japanese version of being hollywoodified is. (+/-)
After the jump, I will complain about what happens (or does not happen) in the movie so... spoilers!
You've seen the movie or do not care about being spoiled? OK, let's start.
They do not sleep together.
From what I gathered, it happens, at least in the anime. I was wondering if it would happen in the movie and it does not. It's not even hinted (or I missed something). It's a significant change because their "level" of intimacy and emotional commitment is different.
It also participates to the watering down of George's character. Why would he give up after the first attempt at the hotel, especially when she's living at his place?
His backstory adds nothing to our understanding of him and why does this guy who seemed quite proactive and self-confident not reach for her in three years?
And the ending: way too long and cliché. OK, Yukari is a professional model but did she have to be the n°1 model? The running, the finding the magazines, the kissing right away... They were only missing the rain and a stupid joke.
I usually like happy endings so I don't know if I'm just being grouchy or if that ending really didn't feel organic.
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