Aug
19
2007
Heavenly Forest
Posted by luna6
Movie: Heavenly Forest / Tada, kimi wo aishiteru
Release Date: October 28, 2006
Country: Japan
Director: Takehiko Shinjo
Starring: Aoi Miyazaki, Hiroshi Tamaki
Runtime: 116 min
Editor Rating : 7.0
(43 Votes, User Rating: 9.19)
Loading …
Movie Review : “…Love ..love …love” Excuse me for a moment. “There’s nothing you can do that can’t be done. Nothing you can sing that can’t be sung.” Now people in the back row sing with me “All you need is LOVE! …LOVE is all you need!” Whew - with that out of my system I can now turn my attention back to “Heavenly Forest.”
“Heavenly Forest” is a film adapted from Ichikawa Takuji’s novel “”Renai Shashin: Mo Hitotsu no Monogatari.”" The novel by Ichikawa Tauki was actually written as a spin-off to the 2003 film “Collage of Our Lives.” As with “College of Our Lives” you have two main characters in “Heavenly Forest” that loves photography, enters a photography contest and eventually winds up moving to New York City. Fortunately, “Heavenly Forest” is not anywhere as bad as the pretentious borefest known as “Collage Of Our Lives.”
The story in “Heavenly Forest” is a familiar one involving two outcasts : Shizuru (Aoi Miyazaki) and Makoto (Hiroshi Tamaki). Makato is a shy young teen, very self-conscious of smelling bad around others and thus hangs out by himself mostly. During the first day of orientation at his university Makoto meets Shizuru. Shizuru is a petite girl that looked far younger than her age and eats only candy sized donuts. She also has the appearance of Pippi Longstocking if she came from a Japanese manga. The two outsiders hit it off splendidly and quickly become friends. Makato shared his love of photography with Shizuro and the two spent their time taking pictures of the Heavenly Forest Unfortunately, Shizuro was in love with Makoto, but Makoto had a crush on another girl at school named Miyuki.
With the help of Shizuro’s friendship, Makoto becomes more confident and eventually becomes friends with Miyuki. The two spend more and more time together as Shizuro looks on as the third wheel. One day Shizuro asks Makoto to help her with a photo she is composing for a photo competition. She takes a photo of herself and Makoto kissing for the first time. After that day…Shizuro disappears.
A love story like that certainly had the potential to become a formulaic yawn fest, but fortunately “Heavenly Forest” was more of an entertaining smile-fest. The film was filled with eye candy and the pacing was refreshingly upbeat for most of its runtime. The principle cinematographer in “Heavenly Forest” was Shinjo Takehiko, a well known director of Japanese drama shows. Like those Japanese television dramas, “Heavenly Forest” had a vibrant modern look filled with sharp looking people everywhere. Aoi Miyazaki and Hiroshi Tamaki were both compelling in their leading roles, even if they tended to exaggerate their facial expressions to much in their earlier years. Hiroshi Tamaki actually spoke in a higher pitched voice to seem younger than his age. Props goes out to Aoi Miyazaki for taking on a role that seems initially out of character for her. Even though she looked cute as a button with the glasses and frizzy hair, when the glasses came off the change was stunning.
The film concluded on a more sentimental note ready to pull on the heartstrings of the viewers. Although I didn’t enjoy those moments as much the rest of the film – it could have been a lot worse. Thankfully the scenes were refined enough that the cutesy melodrama elements didn’t become overbearing. In a way the ending scenes recalled the spirit of one of my all time favorite films “Failan” but aimed squarely for the hearts and minds of the teenage crowd. For me personally, the charm of “Heavenly Forest” was simply Aoi Miyazaki and when she appeared so did the smiles. Overall, “Heavenly Forest” was an engaging film that seems especially well suited for teens & teens still at heart. “Love ..Love…Love…”
buy Heavenly Forest from YesAsia
Cast:
Aoi Miyazaki - Shizuru Satonaka
Hiroshi Tamaki - Makoto SegawaMunetaka Aoki - Ryo Shirohama
Keisuke Koide - Kyohei Sekiguchi
Meisa Kuroki - Miyuki Toyama
Asae Oonishi - Yuka Yaguchi
Misa Uehara - Saki Inoue
If you like this movie you may enjoy : Midnight Sun, Nana, Honey & Clover, Failan
2006 Movie Reviews, Japanese Movies, Movie Reviews |
Comments
15 Comments so far
biniBningPunkista :
Good question. The ratings just came about on its own, but to break it down real quick (this is hardly scientific) –
1-4.5 (so bad it’s offensive to just boring)
5.0 - 5.5 (not very good but a few redeeming parts)
6.0 - 6.5 (decent, could appeal to others with different tastes)
7.0 - 7.5 (good movie, might have a blemish or two)
8.0 - 8.5 (very good film time to get excited)
9.0 - 10.0 (brilliant)
also the ratings are nothing more than a guideline to give readers a feel for the movie, plus there’s the user votes to balance out my own subjective views. End of the day hope the reviews helps people pick out something to watch.
I think the review for “Heavenly Forest” covers the pros and cons that I experienced. In regards to the “7″ rating, that’s actually quite positive, worthwhile to check out, and I enjoyed it myself. Hope that helps?
luna,
i would just want to know how you rate in your movie reviews.. the rating for this movie is 7. i wonder why… you have stated in your review that that the acting tends to be OVER done.. other than that… was there something else that didn’t quite suit your taste?
i’ve seen the movie a year ago and yeah… like some, i did cry my eyes out at the ending part. ever since i saw this movie, Aoi and Tamaki made a big impact to me (and i look into all the movies or dramas they do and see if its as good as Tada Kimi…lolz.) the movie was disappointing for love story part, i can’t say its an unrequited love since they do love each other… its the time-not-spent-together part which really got me depressed. nevertheless… i still love this movie and would be recommending it. (^_^)v
thank you so much for this review…!
-biniBningPunkista
Sheesh, what’s with the strange comments? Anyway, I found the movie quite charming. I’d recommend it to the people who enjoy this sort of movie.
that movie is sucks harder than harry-cho and troy-gabriela!,but i like the goddamned movie ok!
holy shit!! the 2 japs are kissing in big apple,both are bull shit!!
You live with the characters and grow up with them all through the movie. ONce again I drifted away with a love story.
To be honest, this was better than Renai Shashin. It was more of a romantic, moving movie compared to Renai Shashin, a movie that was much darker and revealed New York’s darker colour. Both movies are very nice, but this was much, much better. Love it. I cried when I saw this… but then again, so did I when I saw Renai Shashin.
never knew that this was a spin off of Renai Shashin, but knowing that, i can understand why the ending was the way it was. i liked the fact that this movie focus on when they were together more. as to what Renai Shashin did. i hate the fact that there was a lot of time jumps throughout the movie though, other then that it was a great movie.
J’ai adoré, j’ai pleuré comme une madelaine a la fin. C’est un très beau film!
hi luna,
hey yeah, i get wat u mean. actors/actresses can make such a difference to a film. i havent seen the other movies u were talkin about xcept oldboy. that was such a good movie because it was followed with substance as well. but i dont think the girl actress in this movie was special at all, acting or nething. so coupled with a crap story, it didnt do much. i realli could not see nethin special in that actress that was different or spectacular. she was ok. i’m thinkin like fightclub, i cant imagine ne actor in it other than brad pitt, it wouldnt work, but that movie story was good. maybe…like sakuran. the storyline wasnt good, well, speical or nething. but the actress in it i thought was special, unique. she made the film more alive for me if it was by another actress. i guess if foudn teh storyline boring n the actress ok-her charm or aura didnt relate to me, then the film flopped for me. even the art-the photography were ok at best. n if i went to that photo exhibition (in new yrok was it? in the movie) it would have realli sucked n reaked of sentimentality. the film was just childish n cheesy for me. oh well.
yeah, oddball characters can b interestin if they are interesting. this movie character i thought was more whiny n childish than complicated n interesting. i’m thinkin amelie? she was an oddball character that was interestin, not so much superficially oddball to be inetersting…if u kinda know wat i mean. :)
Hey Apple,
Good question. I would guess I would like the film less if it had someone other than Aoi Miyazaki playing Shizuru, but that depends on that other actor as well (if someone as talented her maybe so or even more). But I do think that’s reflective of most movies. Would Oldboy have been as good without Min-Shik Choi? Probably not. Would “King and The Clown” been as entertaining without Jun-Ki Lee? Definitely not. Would “Hanna and Alice” been the same without Aoi Yu? Nope. “Failan” without Cecilia Cheung? Nope.
Rather than a bad reflection on the film itself, I think its more of a reflection on what a special actor/actress can bring to the table. Usually the more talented actors can make an otherwise average film good. On the flipside there are some films - usually with a large ensemble cast and a particular special twist (Swing Girls/Battle Royale/The Host) - that can be as good with a different group of actors as well. But that’s just reflective of the type of film it is.
So..am I fan of Aoi Miyazaki’s work? Definitely. Did that skew my impressions of the film? I don’t think so - “Hatsukoi (First Love)” review here starred Aoi Miyazaki and the film sucked regardless.
Although “Heavenly Forest” was far from perfect (Aoi Miyazaki and Hiroshi Tamaki tended to overact to appear younger than their actual ages) there was a lot of good things about the film. Most notably an “aura” or charm around Aoi Miyazki’s Shizuru character that made the film enjoyable for myself. I’m also a fan of those 80’s John Hughes films and in a way “Heavenly Forest” was a lot like that (Somekind of Wonderful) but wrapped around a colorful manga like setting.
Also another thing - which is purely subjective and personal - but I gravitate towards films with quirky oddball main characters (Shizuru and Mikato!) and stories that tell their stories in engaging manners and for the most part “Heavenly Forest” did that. The ending didn’t do it for me, but regardless I still liked the film. Thanks for the comments…cheers
hi luna,
do u think u would enjoy the film wivout the girl actress in it? she is cute, but i’m not into or know famous actress/ actors so she didnt realli steal the show for me. i thought the acting was actualli kinda bad in this movie. the whole movie was realli boring. um..i dont know wat u saw in it. it was formulaic, it was cheesy, the storyline was boring, the characters were reallli realli boring. i think it was more a highschool movie, maybe it should b set in a highsckool instead of uni. wat boring characters, wat boring cheesey lives, wat a boring movie!! i think u’ve been bedazzled by the actres to notice..^ ^ ok, bit harsh, soz. but seriously, it didnt deserve 7 stars. pure yawn fest.
I found Tamaki Hiroshi’s shy and awkward character a delightful change from his previous roles, like the arrogant Chiaki in Nodame Cantabile or that loud and brash swimmer in Waterboys. But I agree, the real gem of the film is Miyazaki Aoi, who just draws you into every role she plays with her charm.
The ending is a reprise of endless plot elements found in Asian dramas, but strangely found myself still falling for them — what’s more I’m going on my own ‘journey of independence,’ all thanks to this film! ^^;
What a sweet movie! Everything about it was so charming and enjoyable. I have to watch this again and again!
I quite enjoyed this movie. Aoi Miyazaki was brilliant and being an appreciator of art, I loved all the photography. Wished I had gotten hold of the first press premium edition.