Apr
28
2007
A Song To The Sun (Midnight Sun / Taiyo no uta)
Posted by luna6
Movie : A Song To The Sun / Midnight Sun / Taiyo no uta
Release Date : June 17, 2006
Country : Japan
Director : Norihiro Koizumi
Starring : Yui, Takashi Tsukamoto, Goro Kishitani
Run Time : 119 Minutes
Editor Rating : 7.0
(36 Votes, User Rating: 8.83)
Loading …
Plot Synopsis : Kaoru is a talented young teenager, gifted with a charming voice and a sweet abiity to play the acoustic guitar. She also suffers from a rare skin disease called Xeroderma Pigmentosum (XP). People with xeroderma pigmentosum have a defect in the gene that is responsible for repairing cell damage caused by ultraviolet (UV) light. For Kaoru, this means that she must avoid sunlight completely.
Kaoru watches the world from her tinted bedroom window during the days and at night roams around her neighborhood alone. She has never attended school and is incapable of doing a lot of things most teenagers take for granted. She falls in love with a boy named Kouji that doesn’t even know she exist. He often sits at a bus stop in the mornings, that is visible from Kaoru’s window. One day Kaoru see’s Kouji walking down a street at night and she gathers the courage to finally talk to him. Actually, she tackles him from behind and then blurts out her name, her hobbies, favorite fruit, favorite muscian, and the fact that she doesn’t have a boyfriend.
Movie Review : A Song To The Sun is a sweet little film, that surprisingly doesn’t pack the excessive melodrama one would expect from a film centered around a girl with a debilitating disease. The film seems made particularly for teenage folks and mainstream cinema goers, so stylistically you can expect a film similar to Kentaro Otani’s Nana.
The movie does feature a promising JPop singer / actress named Yui, that plays the lead character “Kaoru.” This would have been my first exposure to her and from watching her performance in the movie I would guess she will have a very promising career in film and music. In “A Song To The Sun” Kaoru often goes out by herself at night and performs songs out in the public. The songs would be similar in style to Avril Lavigne if she was performing with just a acoustic guitar. At times to cutesy for me, but nevertheless Yui did have a charming voice, and the ending song was quite moving. Her acting was believable and perhaps more importantly she really seemed to be the character “Kaoru.” Also, it was hard not to be impressed by her beauty. Her co-star, Takashi Tsukamoto, was as impressive playing Kouji. I did remember Takashi Tsukamoto from Battle Royale (he played the boy with the laptop). In retrospect, the amount of Japanese actors/actresses that starred in Battle Royale and then went on to have even bigger careers is mind boggling.
I found the pacing to be very good for a teenage melodrama type of movie. Not exactly fast paced but not deathly slow like Sugar & Spice. The movie felt a lot shorter than its 119 minute runtime and I would guess this would be due to the movie’s ability to draw the viewer in from the get go. A movie like “A Song To The Sun” not only provides for an emotional film going experience, but it sure can make you reassess the severity of problems that you have in your everyday life. Somewhere during the second half of the film, I did start to get nervous that the movie would pile on the excessive melodrama at the end, but fortunately the movie did not. The ending is done with tact and in a realistic manner, which results in a heavier punch by the final scenes of Kaoru’s song being played on the radio.
buy A Song to the Sun (Midnight Sun) from YesAsia
Cast:
Yui - Kaoru Amane
Takashi Tsukamoto - Koji Fujishiro
Kuniko Asagi - Yuki Amane
Eri Fuse
Gaku Hamada
Jun Kaname - Kudou Youhei
Goro Kishitani - Ken Amane
Takashi Kobayashi
Magy
Sogen Tanaka - Haruo Kato
Airi Toyama - Misaki Matsumae
Hajime Yamazaki
Similar Movies of Interest : Josee The Tiger And The Fish, Nana, All About Lilly Chou-Chou
2006 Movie Reviews, Japanese Movies, Movie Reviews |
Comments
7 Comments so far
Taiyou No Uta lyrics
Furueteiru watashi no te ni
Hajimete kimi ga furete
Yasashii kimochi atatakasa ni
Yatto kizuitanda
Tozashita mado akereba
Atarashii kaze ga fuita
Waratte naite kimi to deaete
Mieru sekai wa kagayakidashita
Himawari yureru
Taiyoo no shita de
Kanjiteita kaze o kimi o
Shinjiru koto mayou koto mo
Tachidomaru koto mo zenbu
Watashi ga ima koko de ikiteru
Kotae kamo shirenai
Monokuro no mainichi ga
Irozuite yuku yoo ni
*Waratte naite kimi to deate
Tsuzuku mirai wa kagayaiteita
Himawari yureru taiyoo no shita de
Watashi no mama ashita o
Utau yo
Kagiri aru hibi o tomaranai jikan o
Doredake aiseru kana? Aiseru yone
Kimi ga ireba hikari sae mo
Sorasanaide
(*BIS)
Arigatoo tsutaetai imanara ieru yo
Sugoshita kisetsu mo wasure wa shinai yo
Himawari yureru taiyoo no yoo ni
Watashi no uta kimi o terasu yo
Watashi no mama kimi o…
hua i love this movie,,but i hope i have lyric this song,,maybe u help me?
send by email to me
reisza2012@yahoo.com
but i hope u write in alphabet bcoz i cant read japanese
thx b4
I liked this movie but loved the japanese drama of it better. I dont know why. lol both the drama and the movie are the same so I like them both oh if you want the HK version of the movie just visit CDjapan they sell everything from music to movies.
Oops…thanks for pointing that out Ronnie :) As stated in the review…this would have been my first time I have seen/heard of Yui and she was quite impressive…cheers
Uhhh, I absolutely LOVE this movie, then again I am what some might call a YUI-”Fanboy” :P
PS: the korean release doesn’t have english subs! (just in case Petite isn’t a native speaker) If you need engl. subs, check out the HK-DVD.
Hey…not a problem, thanks for posting that message. You know I’m vacationing in Korea and I remember seeing that DVD in a store here. If you want (DVD will probably only play in region 3 dvd players, but will play on any computer with VLC)…just drop me a note via the contact page from the top with your mailing address and the same email address you used to post the message and I will mail one out to you. Booyah…cheers!
God I want this movie. Thank you for creating a site for Asian films and Indie culture