What do you get when cross a well respected indie filmmaker (Isshin Inudo) and a well known J-Pop boy band (Arashi)? In this case you get “Yellow Tears (Kiiroi namida)”, a remarkably flat coming age period piece set in Tokyo 1962. The film itself is based off a classic manga by Shinji Nagashima – one of the more well regarded manga artists from that period.

The movie is centered around five friends as they end up spending the summer of 1962 shackled up together in a tiny studio apartment in Tokyo. The five friends are Eisuke – the manga artist, Shoichi – the singer, Ryuzo – the novelist, Kei – the painter and Yuji – the 5th wheel (?). The friends spend the summer in pursuit of their own ideals of personal freedom – being able to do what they want. In the process of pursuing their dream they learn firsthand that however ideal it may seem, its not as easy as they think.

Although on paper the movie seems promising, when you actually watch the film there’s not a lot of emotions elicited outside of the occasional yawns . Isshin Inudo has directed a handful of remarkable films – Josee, The Tiger and the Fish / La Maison De Himiko – but with “Yellow Tears” his voice seems to have gotten lost somewhere in the production. You could chalk it up to the fact that the movie is set in 1962 – a time when the director himself was only two years old or you could chalk it up to the pressures of directing a bigger budget film, but whatever the reasons I found myself strangely detached from the characters and the movie itself.

The actors from the boy band Arashi did perform reasonably well in their respective roles, albeit none of the guys really stood out. This isn’t surprising when you consider that they have performed previously in the 2002 movie “Pika*nchi Life Is Hard Dakedo Happy”. Also, Sho Sakurai gave a compelling solo performance in the live action version of Honey & Clover and Kazunari Ninomiya appeared recently in “Letters from Iwo Jima”. Beyond the members from Arashi, there’s also Yu Kashii (the guitarist from Linda Linda Linda) appearing in a prominent supporting role in the film. After watching her perform the same type of glum character in Linda Linda Linda, Death Note and now Yellow Tears, I did have to wonder to myself when she would break out a smile.

The setting of Tokyo in 1962 did provide a perfect backdrop for a coming of age film. The city and the country itself were on the doorstops of sudden change, but you would never it know from watching “Yellow Tears.” In retrospect the movie was like eating a bowl of non-flavored ramen. The basics are respectable but there’s just not a lot to get excited about. I do hope Isshin Inudo’s next film “Bizan” turns out better than this one.