Title: ただ、君を愛してる Tada, Kimi wo Aishiteru
English Title:
- Just, Loving You
- Heavenly Forest
Language: Japanese
Year: 2006
Cast:
- 玉木宏 Tamaki Hiroshi
- 宮崎あおい Miyazaki Aoi
- 黒木メイサ Kuroki Meisa
- 小出恵介 Koide Keisuke
- 上原美佐 Uehara Misa
- 青木崇高 Aoki Munetaka
- 大西麻恵 Onishi Asae
SYNOPSIS
大塚愛 Otsuka Ai - 恋愛写真 Ren'ai ShashinSegawa Makoto, an extremely insecure guy, meets a weird girl named Satonaka Shizuru by chance. Both find out that they are entering university and the two decide to be friends.
Makoto and Shizuru hang out together in an idyllic forest. Makoto likes photography and he spends his free time taking pictures, with Shizuru keeping him company. He teaches her basic photograpy and she takes a liking to it, particularly taking portraits of people.
Makoto develops a crush on Toyama Miyuki, an ideal girl well-liked by everybody. And although Shizuru likes Makoto, she also befriends Miyuki because she wants the person she loves to fall in love and to be loved in return.
Makoto and Shizuru enters a photography contest and Shizuru wants to take pictures of lovers as her theme. She asks Makoto to be her model and kiss her for her self-portrait.
After the kissing incident, Shizuru disappears. Although Makoto tries to find her, he could not get in touch with her. After two years, he receives a letter from Shizuru inviting him to her first ever photo exhibit in New York City. Makoto travels to New York and looks forward to meet the person he loves...
REVIEW
I'm really glad I watched Tada, Kimi wo Aishiteru. It is a great movie with a wonderful cast and amazing cinematography. I think I really enjoyed every scene because I never got bored, not even once.
Miyazaki Aoi's portrayal of Satonaka Shizuru is superb; how she was able to make such a weird character adorable is beyond me. Tamaki Hiroshi is brilliant in playing awkward and detached characters like Segawa Makoto.
This movie is all about 'what-if' and 'could-have, should-have, would-have'...
Shizuru disappeared after the kissing incident because she was embarrassed and she is not aware that Makoto is also in love with her. Well, Makoto only realizes this after the kiss and it was just unfortunate that he didn't have an opportunity to confess his feelings before Shizuru disappears on him.
But Toyama Miyuki apparently knows everything. Somewhere in the middle of the movie, she finds out about Makoto's feelings for Shizuru and although Miyuki also likes him, she gives up on him. We find out at the end of the movie that Miyuki also knows about Shizuru's illness, her feelings for Makoto, and her whereabouts. She could have said something but I suppose she didn't because it was not her place to do so.
My sister highly recommends this movie so this has been in my to-watch list for quite a while. However, I forced her to tell me what it's all about and what happened in the end. After finding out that I won't get a 'happily-ever-after' ending, I put off watching it.
I don't really mind that this movie did not have a happy ending. But I just wished Makoto and Shizuru's love story have somewhat developed before Shizuru died... Shizuru could have found out about how Makoto feels about her. Makoto would have been beside her and they could have taken lots of pictures together. They could have shared more hugs and kisses, and times together as a real couple...
Oh well, at least they had one kiss. And fortunately for them, their first kiss was well-documented.
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ただ、君を愛してる Tada, Kimi wo Aishiteru
