Japanese title: ハチミツとクローバー
Running time: 116 minutes
Now out on DVD
Some info:
1) Wiki Article
2) IMDB Profile
3) ANN
4) Official Site (Japanese)
Once again, I still haven’t watched the original anime series (which I think is according to the manga), so I still wouldn’t know how loosely adapted this movie is. I have, however, watched the [Jap] drama series, so I’ll be kinda comparing between this movie and the drama series. For those who don’t know, the movie came much earlier than the drama series.
Anyway, according to my rough description of the main events in the drama series, my friend Jon who has watched the anime series has commented that the drama series was already quite fast in terms of progression. If that’s the case, then I can only say this movie is a super duper summary. Basically, the main events are that of the drama series (more or less). Just imagine 11 episodes worth of drama condensed into a sub-2-hour movie. I wouldn’t even need to compare this to the anime (or manga) which many people say it’s still the best version so far to know that this movie is actually somewhat disappointing.
There are a few problems with this movie:
1) As I’ve mentioned earlier, it’s too condensed. Hence, it’s not surprising each main character of the gang doesn’t get very much time to develop their role fully. There’s only that much you can do in 2 hours (including ending credits)
2) It seems to be a low budget movie, or maybe the drama series has a (much) higher budget. That’s how I felt after watching the movie. Both the drama and movie starred Japanese artistes that I’m hardly familiar or do not even know about and yet, I still find that the movie counterpart is actually less impressive and convincing. Shrugs.
Oh well, I’m suspecting the temple that Takemoto ended up during his “journey” seems super similar to the one I see in the drama series. Or maybe it’s because many temples have this identical look. Shrugs. Besides that, the settings for the movie are actually quite different from the drama (actually should be comparing the other way round since the movie came first).
Overall, if you just want to watch a live-action version, I’d recommend the drama series over this movie. Now I am not intrigued as to why this movie wasn’t very well received among many fans. Hic. Lalala~ Oh, once again because this story is related to anime/manga/drama, I’ve decided not to rate it. It’s not like it’ll get a very nice rating from me either. =P
Recent Comments