Quick Review #150: 366 nichi (movie)

Title: 366 nichi / ３６６日　　　　　　　

Rating: 6 / 10

Recommended for: 

Those who want to watch a love story featuring very compatible-looking leads set in gorgeous Okinawa with a nice OST BUT don't mind the clichés and some unreasonable developments 

* Potential spoilers ahead!

* I have not watched the drama version in its entirety (one episode only).

Liked:

- Despite my initial reservation about how Akaso Eiji and Kamishiraishi Moka were actually going to pull off looking like a couple with just a year's difference in age (even though their age gap is actually much bigger), I guess I was worried for nothing after all. It did seem like their previous experience of working together in "Pending Train" helped in improving their chemistry on the whole.

Thanks to the fact that Akaso can still look like a high school guy with his youthful looks and the proper styling plus he and Moka do look very compatible on screen, it was easy to forget their true age gap or not be bothered by it. I also liked their onscreen chemistry especially during the days when the lead couple was still in love - it was as if I could feel their happiness seeping through across the screen.

- I was particularly impressed with Moka's acting - be it as a young high schooler to an older version of herself in university and later when she became a mother. The breadth and depth of her acting was truly brilliant despite the story being quite meh at some junctures. I also liked her interaction with Inagaki Kurumi and was pretty surprised to find that they do look similar enough to pass off as mother-and-daughter in this movie.

- The scenery in Okinawa was definitely a sight to behold. Given that HY hails from Okinawa, this location was a natural choice and a good one after all. Along with HY's songs (not just "366 nichi" which is the motif of this movie), the actual theme song for this movie "Koi wo shite" was also a great fit with the visuals and story. It was nice to see that these elements complemented one another to make this movie more memorable and enjoyable to watch.

Disliked: 

- The biggest problem for me was the story i.e. how predictable this was heading (the couple was never going to end up together in the end) and how some developments were so unbelievable or didn't make sense. Just to name one - would you have allowed your junior school daughter to fly all the way from Okinawa to Tokyo on her own to find someone? While the father did get someone to "accompany" her in secret, it was somewhat bothersome to me.

One other problem I had was the similarities this had with another movie of a similar plot/genre i.e. "Ito" - also based on a song (albeit by Nakajima Miyuki), spanned 18 years, featured Okinawa (although Hokkaido was the "main" location for "Ito") and described how a couple couldn't be together for one reason or another. It got me comparing both movies unconsciously from time to time even though the circumstances facing both couples were truly different and the songs had vastly different vibes. 

Last but not least, I felt a generation gap with the lead couple in this movie - the MD player featured prominently in their younger days but my childhood and teenager days were more in the cassette tape-to-CD-player era. Frankly speaking, I hardly had any exposure to the MD because I moved on to portable MP3 players straight from CDs.  As such, it was no wonder that the MD plot device didn't really resonate with me.