Quick Review #36: "Mimi wo sumaseba"

Title: Mimi wo sumaseba / 耳をすませば

Rating: 6/10

Recommended for: 

Those who are fans of the original manga or those who like first-love-coming-to-fruition stories

Liked:

- Disclaimer: I haven't read the manga nor watched the animation movie so my opinion is solely based on this real-life adaptation. While I found the storyline a bit too predictable and simple to my liking, I think that the acting of the younger actors who played the lead characters' junior high days made the movie more palatable than I thought. They may not be as experienced and skillful in some instances but they did manage to convey the freshness and youthfulness of the younger versions. I especially want to commend the casting director's effort in finding these actors who resemble the adult actors to a large degree as this really helped to enhance the believability and maintain a certain degree of continuity when the story shuttled between the past and current timelines. Many times, a lot of these stories featuring the younger days and current adult days tend to be quite disengaging because the actors for the same characters hardly resemble each other in terms of appearance or the vibe they give off. I personally always struggle to link A with B as playing the same character because they are so different and it really annoys me to no end when the number of years between both eras is less than a decade and looks or build couldn't have changed that much. However, there was no such issue for this movie so it really helped me to enjoy the movie better.

Disliked: 

- Due to the simplicity and predictability of the story, it did bore me at times as I could see where things were going. As such, if you are looking for surprises or anything unexpected, this is probably not going to satisfy you.

- It could be due to the fact that the adult versions of the lead characters i.e. Seino Nana and Matsuzaka Toori were "apart" for most of the movie so things between them just seemed very awkward and I didn't quite feel the romantic spark between them even though the junior high versions were giving off lots of dokidoki first love vibes. As such, it was very difficult for me to feel or believe that their characters had such a strong bond. To top it off, the scene where they finally show their feelings for each other just made me cringe for its unnaturalness. Or maybe it was always meant to be like this in the original material?

* Take note that you should finish watching the credits even though the movie supposedly ends. The theme song is sung by someone who never appeared in the movie while towards the end, you get a glimpse of what happens beyond the "happily-ever-after".