Watches
June 29, 2013
Hiroki takes on the romance meets terminal disease niche. It's not Japan's finest genre, but I'm guessing it does quite well locally because for the past 10-15 years there's been a rather constant stream of these films. It could've been interesting in the hands of Hiroki if he'd done his usual thing. Sadly, he stuck quite rigidly to genre conventions.
Chie is diagnosed with breast cancer. She undergoes treatment, but she decides to leave her current life behind. Her current boyfriend doesn't want to lose the love of his life and he tracks her down, convincing her to come back to him. She agrees, but cancer hits her a second time. This time Chie's boyfriend and her father decide to keep it from her.
Hiroki picks his moments, scenes that are a tad warmer and more touching than usually the case. Overall though, this is a pretty basic, overly sentimental romance with its fair share of drama. I've seen a few too many of those and I would prefer if they'd dial them back a little. Not the worst of the bunch though.