My Rainy Days

My Rainy Days

Title: My Rainy Days aka Tenshi no Koi
Genre: Drama
Director: Kantake Yuri
Format: Movie; 119 minutes.
Date: 7 Nov 2009
Synopsis: 32-year old history professor Ozawa Kouki learns that he is diagnosed with malignant brain tumor, and it leaves him with only a few years to live. Worse, he is told that a second operation can result in complications such as paraplegia and memory loss. As he steps out of the doctor’s room, he meets 14-year old Rio who bears the same surname, reluctant to go with an unexplained medical procedure that’s strongly urged by her mother. Three years after that fateful meeting, the two meet again when a set of photos were mixed up. Intrigued by his personality and demeanor, Rio becomes attracted to Kouki and learns what it means to cherish a fragile life and how important it is to treat others the way one wants to be treated.
The Highlights
Story: Familiar premises, different approach; stands above other movies of similar genre.
Relationship: Seeing Rio and Kouki together just warms my heart.
Plot: Purpose of Rio subplots is a little questionable.
Characters: Surprisingly noteworthy depth for some characters.
Sasaki Nozomi: Good performance as the bubbly Rio… and goddamn, she’s hawt!
Yuri undertones: Uh huh, oh yeah.

I see an apparent trend in the Japanese movie industry lately. There has been an influx of movies adapted from mobile phone novels, and these movies possess common undesirable traits. They often employ a formulaic storytelling style of utilizing suspensions of disbelief to add a tinge of surrealism to otherwise ordinary life accounts, but very often the movies end up logically hard to swallow or too superficial to enjoy. Some say they are also originally penned by unestablished anonymous writers, giving an impression to readers and viewers that these love stories are actual accounts of their lives. As a skeptic of this notion, I simply judge how well-written these stories are, not caring about the credibility of these supposedly true events (there isn’t a way to prove that they indeed took place, anyway). After watching supposed tearjerkers Koizora and Threads of Destiny, I almost felt like giving up on the genre. That’s when My Rainy Days came, a movie that breathing some fresh air and shining a ray of light into the dull, stale genre.
The premises My Rainy Days dwell on is nothing amazing; girl meets guy, they run into dire complications, they struggle, one of them dies, but nevertheless reaches a happy ending. The common pitfall that these type of movies stumble into is that they become cynical, sappy and melodramatic, often to ridiculous extent. My Rainy Days doesn’t fall into that trap; there are a number of scenes in the movie that can brighten up any person’s day and illustrate that young love isn’t all about crying and dying. Many of these scenes are exemplified in the relationship between the two lead characters Rio and Kouki, which I’d say contain some of the funniest and cutest bits I’ve seen in a long time. Whatever Rio’s childish antics are, be it Rio opening an umbrella in a cinema or yelling in a library for Kouki’s attention, the bits are not just amusing, but more importantly, they highlight the great character dynamics between the two protagonists.
Kouki and Rio are an example of how polar opposites attract: The former is a socially inept middle-aged man who is on his way to death, whereas the latter is a sociable lass who is only starting to enjoy her young life. Character dynamics is exemplified when Rio can appear mature and sophisticated when she’s with her friends, yet becomes childish and frivolous when with Kouki (who by the way, has a striking resemblance to aunt-killer Bae Yong Joon at some angles). It’s amazing to see how Kouki’s impassiveness, genuinity and melancholy sheds Rio’s false maturity and taps on her inner brattish child, and at the same time, Rio’s enthusiasm and childlike persistence invokes Kouki’s inner eccentric history nut. Furthermore, the contrasting idiosyncrasies put their love between them under various light; it’s not always a couple’s love between them because they even look like a brother and sister in some moments. Kouki is also the epitome of the anti-angst male lead that is prevalent in teenage-oriented movies, which is perhaps why his relationship with Rio seems bona fide and charming.
It’s sad to see that although My Rainy Days does well in avoiding the melodrama pitfall, it couldn’t avoid other traps. Rape and suicide are trite plot devices that have actually spoil more movies than they help, since they are often used as a cheap way to get shock value. Seeing the two devices in My Rainy Days is disheartening, especially when they don’t even seem necessary to be included in the story for any reason. In addition, the devices are centerpieces of two subplots that feature Rio as the central figure, and I question the overall purpose of the subplots. If they serve simply to portray Rio’s debased motives, then not only are they disjointed from the main storyline, they are even trivial in light of the true focus of the story.
Although it develops on hackneyed foundations and possesses very familiar story quirks – there are noticeable traces of elements borrowed from Nana, Be With You and Winter Sonata – My Rainy Days is able to stand out from other sappy Japanese drama movies for its multiple character dimensions and good chemistry. I was even surprised to see subtle irony; death parts all couples, and yet the photo of a dying man is the one brought the two together. I admit that the movie poster featuring the barebacked Sasaki baited me to watch My Rainy Days, but I left with a new upbeat impression on mobile phone novel-based movies.

Trailer

 

Indowebster-DVDRip :

CD1 :
http://www.indowebster.com/my_rainy_days_001_part01.html
http://www.indowebster.com/my_rainy_days_001_part02.html
http://www.indowebster.com/my_rainy_days_001_part03.html
http://www.indowebster.com/my_rainy_days_001_part04.html
http://www.indowebster.com/my_rainy_days_001_part05.html

CD2 :
http://www.indowebster.com/my_rainy_days_002_part01.html
http://www.indowebster.com/my_rainy_days_002_part02.html
http://www.indowebster.com/my_rainy_days_002_part03.html
http://www.indowebster.com/my_rainy_days_002_part04.html
http://www.indowebster.com/my_rainy_days_002_part05.html
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