My Lover Like Cherry Blossoms (2022)

Tissues

Be in the right mood to watch this drama, it’s a sad one. As I was watching it, I realized it was a different storyline than what I thought it was going to be. Halfway through, I knew it was going to be more than just a breakup with a sad ending. As you watch it, you will realize that it could only end one way. I knew it was going to be a love story, but I didn’t quite expect the plot to turn suddenly into a break up for the reason that it did. It had happy times in the beginning, but mid point turned really sad. It is definitely worth the watch, but be in the right mood, it’s a downer.

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A Fleeting Tale Of Young Love Underneath The Cherry Blossoms…

There’s a particular Japanese idiom which comes to mind when talking about the concept of ‘ Yoshihiro Fukagawa’s ‘Love like the Falling Petals’ and that is simply “ Mono No Aware” (“物の哀れ”)- “ The pathos of things, the sensitivity of things which are transient”. At the root core of this idiomatic expression comes to mind with the imagery of fleeting beauty, and none so more than the blossoming and ephemeral period of the Sakura ( cherry blossom) during spring in Japan. Indeed, the symbolic imagery of the Sakura blossom in ‘Love like the Falling Petals ‘ is supposed to represent the beating heart of the narrative. Melancholic and bittersweet in parts, ‘ Love Like the Falling Petals’ is a film which while helping to capture the unpredictable transience of the seasons and young love, could often feel just as fleeting as the cherry blossom.

The film is based upon Uyama Keisuke’s novel "My Lover, Like Cherry Blossoms" (“桜のような僕の恋人”). Adapted to the silver screen by screenwriters Tomoko Yoshida (‘The Liar and His Lover’, ‘Blue Spring Ride’ and ‘Gakkou no Kaidan’) and Uyama Keisuke (‘Switch Girl!!’, ‘Nobunaga Concerto’ and ‘Tonight, At Romance Theater’), the narrative predominantly focuses upon main male lead Haruto Asakura ( Nakajima Kento- ‘Koishite Akuma’, ‘Bad Boys J’ and ‘Nisekoi’). An aspiring photographer with low self-esteem, Haruto falls head over heels in love during a fateful encounter with bubbly hair stylist Ariake Misaki(Honoka Matsumoto- ‘Mio On the Shore’, ‘My Name Is Yours’ and ‘Byoshitsu de Nembutsu o Tonaenaide Kudasai’).

However just as Haruto starts to gain confidence in order to pursue his lifelong ambitions in order to become a photographer, Misaki begins to develop a rare disease that causes her to age rapidly before the falling of next spring’s cherry blossom.
As mentioned previously, ‘Love like the Falling Petals’ attempted to offer its audience with a somewhat sombre reflection of the futility of contingency as well as young love. The initial tone set for the movie is established as somewhat bubbly and sprightly rom-com . ( As established with Haruto and Misaki’s unconventional ‘’meet cute’’ after Misaki accidentally cuts Haruto’s ear with a pair of scissors.)

However as the plot begins to be set in motion with Misaki’s evident dilemma, ‘Love like the Falling Petals’ turns into a sentimental sob story, occasionally dipping into a melodramatic tone also. In addition to our main leads there is also a subplot revolving around Misaki’s brother, Ariake Takashi (Nagayama Kento- ‘Puzzle’, ‘Crows Explode’ and ‘Toge: The Last Samurai’) and his fiancée Yoshino Ayano ( Sakurai Yuki-‘ Love Craft Girl’, ‘A Crimson Star’ and ‘The Night Beyond The Tricornered Window’) attempting to take on the financial burden of Misaki’s circumstances.

Nevertheless despite the attempts for the series to lament over the sorrows of time and existence, the narrative for ‘Love like the Falling Petals’ could often feel discombobulated with its messaging. Of course, while the movie did possess an intrinsic message and an arguable social critique surrounding the financial and emotional burdens of the elderly in Japanese society, these messages could often feel as though they were only approached on a surface-level. This was mainly due to the fact that ‘Love like the Falling Petals’ would often only brief skim over details in a bombastic manner (such as the limited screen time given to the subplot revolving around Misaki’s brother), rarely delving deeper in order to avoid offence.

Kento Nakajima starred as main lead Haruto by adding a reserved yet somewhat blatant charm to his onscreen persona. Co-starring alongside Nakajima was Honoka Matsumoto as Ariake Misaki. Despite Matsumoto’s brilliance as an actress, her performance as Misaki could feel somewhat overblown at times with overexaggerated line deliverances and reactions. Nevertheless, Matsumoto did help to add a tethered charm to Misaki in later scenes of the movie as she falls deeper into a cycle of senescence.

Nakajima and Matsumoto’s onscreen chemistry is decent enough. Matsumoto and Nakajima’s onscreen interactions could feel somewhat childish and stilted at times in the opening of the movie. However by the second-half of ‘Love Like the Falling Petals’, the main leads’ onscreen chemistry turns angst-ridden and woeful, adding a bittersweet as well as an overemotional tone by the ending of the film.

The trajectory of ‘Love Like the Falling Petals’ can arguably be divided into two parts. In the first-half of the film, the narrative takes a lively and pacy approach to Haruto and Misaki’s coup de foudre, while the second-half downplayed events in order to focus on a more serious matter of Haruto and Misaki’s attempting to overcome complicated relationship and problems.
Admittedly this did provide to be a double-edged sword for ‘Love Like the Falling Petals’; the first-half allowing opportunities for viewers to understand the liveliness of Haruto and Misaki’s early courtship, while helping to present the climatic problems of the final part. On the other hand rather than allowing opportunities to delve further into the emotional edge of the characters or their personal backgrounds, Misaki and Haruto’s depth as characters could feel somewhat limited. For example this was particularly shown through the problem of Haruto. His precise reasons for becoming a photographer were limited and unexplored, while the emotional toil for Misaki and her illness were often enforced rather than explored subtly.

In addition to the pacing of the film, it is important to acknowledge the talents of the directing under the leadership of Yoshihiro Fukagawa. Slick and glossy, Fukagawa’s filming encapsulated an onslaught of aesthetic symbols and scenery. In particular, Fukugawa placed heavy emphasis upon the changing of the seasons from the falling cherry blossoms of spring, to the first snowfall of winter in order to mark the literal and metaphorical cycle of the narrative. On the other hand despite some mesmeric moments of the film, the CGI displayed in the opening as well as long-distance shots at times could feel somewhat sloppy at times.

‘ Love Like the Falling Petals’ is a bittersweet love story about transience and young love. Nevertheless despite the movie’s impressive shots and cast line-up, the narrative could often become just as fleeting as the cherry blossom with limited writing cliches, pacing and execution.

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桜のような僕の恋人

桜のような僕の恋人 I decided to watch this movie because of 中島健人 he is one of my favourite actors. I thought it would be a typical love story but it was a whole more than that.
The movie is about Haruto a normal person who has worked in many fields, one day he goes to this hairsalon and instantly falls in love with the hairdresser Misaki. The first day of his haircut she cuts his ear by mistake and then goes to apologise to him, he instantly asks her out on a date. Haruto who almost gave up his dream to become a photographer, begins to pursue his dream again and starts working at a photo studio, making mistakes but still not giving up.
Misaki on the other hand is diagnosed with a rear desease that ages her 10x faster than normal, she doesnt want to tell Haruto about it and breaks up with him.She is still in love with him and contantly wants to hear his voice and meet him.

This movie made me cry soooo much,Misaki is such a good actress and her role was played so well.Their love was definately a Love like the Falling Petals because everything about them connected to cherry blossoms❤️❤️❤️

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Love like falling petals, but life with an illness sucks...

A beautiful spring night where the beauty of love and death collide... or something more poetic than that.

This movie is beautifully filmed, the angles, the stories, the details the colures, the light the attention to detail is gorgeous.

This movie is here to tell us that even the shortest love story can make a difference and change a persons life without becoming too inspirational... The characters are real human beings, and though I may not always like their way of handling things I can relate to it and understand where they are coming from.

What I love besides the beautiful photography is the intensity and verity of the emotions portrayed in this movie, is them showing a person at their lowest and actually letting them be themselves at that point. Raw intense, getting diagnosed with a terminal illness at 25 sucks and boy do they show us that it sucks for both the diagnosed and everyone, yes every single one around them.

The movie also shows desperation and vulnerability in a great way but the best thing about this movie is the total lack of even if they are to love like falling petals... there is not a trace of make the most of what is left, live life to the fullest b.s in this and that makes up for all the aggravating choices within the movie.

So to sum it up, this movie is emotional, it is definitely sad and depressing but with a side of fluffy petals though the tears did not flow from my eyes it did leave me with a lump in my chest so to be clear this is an emotional sad story and not a fluffy happy place...

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Tragically Beautiful

I loved the photos and moments of the cherry blossoms. The story isn't really original, but it was well done, and although it was a 2 hr movie, you don't notice it. At times it even felt like it was too fast. The aging FXs were well done. They were even able to show how seniors can feel disgraced with how their body doesn't function like they wish it would. I liked the love story potion and the pain they both felt.

What I disliked was at times the shaking camera, photographers all know how to use a film stabilizer, so that just took away from the show. It was super annoying and not needed as the actors/actresses all did well to show their heightened emotions. Whether that's a production issue or the director's fault I don't know. Pacing of the movie seemed a bit off in some sections too.

Overall it was a good watch, I would rewatch it and recommend it. Some viewers might need a box of tissues, even though we know the ending ahead of time. It was a nice story about love and not giving up, even if the odds are against you.

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'Art isn't supposed to look nice; it's supposed to make you feel something'

As someone that stepped into this movie having known nothing about it and nothing about the storyline, I would have to say that it left me speechless. Often times people think that melodramatic stories get a lot of recognition well because they are melodramatic. "Nothing could go wrong with a good old sob story! The viewers will love it!" Well then , of course there are those people that manage to pick up on it and bring our attention to it. However, I like to look at it in a different light.

This movie managed to make me smile, cry and reflect all in one sitting. Watching these characters that I am only seeing for the first time and yet still managing to empathise with them, cry with them, and understand their pain with them. Isn't it a beautiful feeling? Isn't it extraordinary?

I do not know of any of the Chinese idioms and I do not understand the implied meanings that are continuously being suggested, although one thing I know for sure is that this was a heart-warming experience.
I would not want to rewatch this and bawl my eyes out ever again but it would be wholesome to remember this Sunday afternoon that I sat down to watch a movie over all the other productions. that seemed uninteresting to me on my Netflix explore page.

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Uncanny feeling after watching it

Unfortunately, this movie was not for me...I did not manage to get into the story. It might be a case of me not behind in the right mindset to appreciate it but still I'm left with an uncanny feeling after watching it.

There was a certain poetry to the dramatic turn that took the story and some moments that resonated with me. However, I had trouble to get invested in the romance...Even if the production did a good job showing the passing of time, the whole relationship and its evolution felt too quick and unnatural. Some of the ups and downs (in particulary the last one) felt really forced for the purpose of dramaturgy sake rather than done with genuinity.

Strangely enough, while I found the developments and turns of the romance too quick, I found the pacing in overall too slow, lacking rythm. Until halfway point of the film, I was quite bored and not invested at all in what was happening on screen. The production was good with quite convincing make-up for the heroine. The music was alright, not really memorable and quite subdue. The acting was okay as well...I don't think I will remember forever any of the performances of the cast but I think it is more linked to the fact I totally did not connect with the scenario.

I would not recommend this to people as it was not an enjoyable watching experience to me. As explained, it might be a case of me not being in the right mindset when watching it but I really was unable to connect with the story and to feel invested into the romance.

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It's a good movie to make you cry, but don't expect too much from it.

I can't ignore the information that I was in tears for most of this movie.

Initially, I thought that my rating would be higher despite the worse ratings of other viewers. I also expected much more from this film, because the plot itself seemed to be good, but the execution is average. Most of this movie is about waiting for something to happen, the characters will meet again, or just Haruto will find out what's really going on with Misaki. This makes over two hours of length a bit too long for this story. It also made the mid-section boring a lot and to be honest I speeded it up a bit sometimes.

It's a good movie to make you cry, but don't expect too much from it.

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Predictable but enjoyable !

This is my very first review in MDL. It started with a really sweet and cute and I really enjoyed the first half of the movie. I can sense a very good chemistry between this two. Prepare your tissue tho since this movie play with your emotions a lot and I never knew that this kind of disease do exist in real life since it is a very rare disease.

It just make me a little bit frustrated by the FL decisions to stay away from the ML eventho eventually the ML knows about her anyway. Overall it was a fun ride and I'm so proud to see Kento's acting getting better and better! the way he express his frustrations and sadness when he couldn't recognized the ML is really real and I can feel his pain!

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Very sad but beautiful story

This movie was a really nice watch for me. Although I cannot say it was something extra special, it was done nicely and with strong impact on your emotions.
The story begins with quite a bit of hapiness but tears your heart apart in the end, so be ready to have a lot of tissues ready.
The main characters are great, I really like their relationship, although some scenes could be done better and we could have a little bit more insight into their dating.
I didn't like the biggest decision of Misaki and I think it would be probably more interesting if she decided otherwise, but on the other hand I get it was necessary. But the scene with the cap - why? This was really heatbreaking and too cruel. The ending was as expected but at the same time I was not ready for it. I was just sitting, tears flowing down my face.
Overally the story is well written but with some bits I didn't like so that's why my rating is at 7,5, but you should definitely watch this if you'd like a bit of bittersweet romance and if you are ready to cry a lot.

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