[KMovie Review] Hotaru no Hikari The Movie: It's Only a Little Light in My Life

*First Review of the 2014! Whoop, whoop!*

I watched this last night, unplanned. (Yup, it was a wild New Year's Eve for me. Well, they do say end the year as you plan to live the next one.)

I was updating my list on mydramalist.com and learned of the movie continuation of the Japanese drama series Hotaru no Hikari. I had enjoyed both seasons a few years ago and was excited about this movie that takes place after the events of the second season.

About Hotaru no Hikari The Movie: It's Only a Little Light in My Life

As I say above, the movie continues after the 2nd season of Hotau no Hikari. Hotaru and Boss are newly married and still their lovable selves. However, now they are considering a honeymoon in Rome, Italy. Hotaru exhibits her typical Dead Fish Woman act and would prefer to lounge around the house eating snacks than to travel. However, boss (coincidentally) has a business trip in Rome and Hotaru (believing that it's his dream to reenact a movie that takes place in Rome) decides to accompany him. Their trip is then filled with misunderstandings, odd happenings, the meeting of a kindred Dead Fish Woman, the mafia, a wedding, crossdressing, and drugs. Yeah, I know.

My Feeling About the Film After Watching

Overall, the movie is nothing special. It wasn't bad, but not great either. It had a lot of what I liked about the series--Hotaru's eccentric, but strangely endearing behavior. Watching, I found Hotaru childishness kind of annoying, rather than cute. Then again, sometimes it kind of was cute, especially when her hubby involuntarily found himself playing along. The storyline wasn't too bad. Interesting, but not particularly compelling until the end when we're finally given vital backstory. At first, I disliked Rio because I didn't understand her actions, but disliking a character for 5/6 of a movie is too long and I found it hard for my opinion of her to change, despite eventually feeling sympathy for her character. The ending, however was actually pretty cute and typical of Hotaru and her Boss. In the end, I'm glad I watched it in order to have Hotaru's story completed as I had always been curious after season two about how she and Boss would live. The movie, It's Only a Little Light in My Life, gave that to me in a fairly satisfactory manner. 

[JMovie] Kimi ni Todoke (2011)

Sawako is a quiet girl who resembles Sadako from the horror movie, "The Ring." Add tense facial expressions and awkward mannerisms when she's nervous and you get a girl who has all of her classmates thinking she can see ghosts. However, Kazuhaya, the most popular guy in class, falls for her on the first day of school when she helps him find the way because he had gotten lost (it's okay that he's not too smart, at least he's pretty). The movie follows Sawako as she comes into herself and opens herself up to friendship and even a little romance. Whooo!

This movie is based on a manga series of the same title. There's also an anime, which I have watched and reviewed here. I loved loved loved the anime series and loved the live action movie as well. It's just as good as the anime, just in a more condensed version.

The movie had great pacing, allowing for a nice build up of emotions and development of Sawako's relationships with herself, her friends, and Kazehaya.

Sawako's character is naive, sweet, honest, and surprisingly charming. In real life, I would find her annoying as hell, but in the movie she's oddly endearing as she opens up and forms close ties with Kazehaya, Yano, Yoshido, and Ryu. The deep relationships between the other characters (Ryu/Yoshino, Yoshino/Yano etc) are also just as important and add to the dynamic of the entire group. Plus, I simply loved how quirky they all were; such an odd bunch! (Especially the homeroom teacher, who was a hoot and a half.)

As a result, there was great comic relief among the tenderness. In addition to making you laugh, this movie makes you smile and even tear up a little (or a lot, depending on how much of a sap you are). There's just so much feeels!

The ending, oh the ending was simply perfect. It was the gushiest, most adorably heartfelt ending I've seen in a long time. In other words, it was completely squeal-worthy.

Kimi ni Todoke is a very nicely done movie that portrays the strength of friendship and connections with others in helping you come into and accepting oneself because as the oh-so-wise Dr. Suess says "Those who care, don't matter and those who matter, don't care." This movie is so sweet that I need to make an appointment with my dentist tomorrow morning!

A must watch, so get to it! I'll even provide a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gBYcTpg9es

Sweetly Yours,
Tuma
Looney Express

[KMovie] Seducing Mr. Perfect (2006)

There's been a recurring theme of car crashes leading to romance in the movies I've watched lately. Min Joon has really bad taste in men. They're not particular jerks or anything, but they always dump her, placing the blame on her--she's too nice, too clingy etc etc. In short, she's a bit pathetic. Anyway. After being stood up by her boyfriend (after skipping out of work with a fake medical excuse *rolls eyes*), she crashes into the car of none other than Robin Heiden, who she discovers is her new boss. Uh-oh! To make matters even worse, Min Joon is assigned as Robin's assistant. They get close really quickly and Robin eventually begins giving Min Joon love advice. And of course they fall in love in the process.

The plot line was really cute, however the execution needed some work. Certain aspects of the story were drawn out too long, or weren't portrayed when you thought they should have been, or not given as much attention as you'd expected. The best part of this movie is how Robin spoke entirely in English while everyone else, including Min Joon, spoke in Korean. Daniel Henney (the actor who plays Robin) was raised in America and doesn't speak much Korean, so the director worked around it in a really cute way. The premise is that Robin can understand Korean pretty well, but finds it different to speak and so refuses to do so. I expected to find that aspect of the movie annoying or frustrating, but instead I thought it was SO adorable and his voice was to die for--so sexy!

Other than the pacing of the story, Robin and Min Joon's relationship developed nicely and I enjoyed watching. There was a bit of humor thrown in with some really cute, awww, scenes. Overall, Seducing Mr. Perfect is worth watching. Find it on Youtube!

Laters Gators,
Tuma
Looney Express

 

[HK-Movie] Fighting for Love (2001)

Fighting for Love is a 2001 Hong Kong movie about office-lady Deborah, who's a loud, chain-smoking, hard ass. On her way to the hospital to visit her more normal sister, she sideswipes a man's car, taking his rear-view mirror with her! Despite the fact that his ailing mother is in the back seat and he was on his way to the hospital, Tung Choi gives chase! When he finally catches up to Deborah, he attempts to intimidate her into paying for damages by kicking her car door. But that only results in her calling the cops and a bleeding toe. And this is the beginning of a loving relationship. Really.

I don't watch too many Asian movies produced in Hong Kong, having only watched Drink Drank Drunk. I'm not even sure why I watched this one. It's pretty obscure and there's not much info about it online, but I randomly saw it on YouTube. To begin with, I was put off by the low quality of the movie in terms of the filming and washed out look, acting, cinematography etc. It's obvious that there is a far smaller budget than that of Korean movies. However, I still found the storyline and romance in Fighting for Love cute and enjoyable to watch.

Though the plot was a little underdeveloped, the pacing a tad slow, and the ending a little anti-climatic, I found the lead couple endearing and lovable. And if you've been following my blogs, you know that it's often the characters that make or break a film for me. If I love the character(s), even if the film is horrible, I can usually tolerate it.

Fighting for Love is a drama you can watch if you've nothing better to watch, but it certainly doesn't stand out as something you need to watch immediately. So, give it a try if you think it may be your cup of tea, or you currently have nothing better on your to-watch list. It's a nice, lighthearted, even sometimes funny, film.

Watch here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGfolMnGpGo