Title: 近キョリ恋愛 Kinkyori Renai
English Tile: Close Range Love
Country: Japan
Language: Japanese
Year: 2014
Cast:
- 山下智久 Yamashita Tomohisa
- 小松菜奈 Komatsu Nana
- 水川あさみ Mizukawa Asami
- 山本美月 Yamamoto Mizuki
- 小瀧望 Kotaki Nozomu
- 新井浩文 Arai Hirofumi
- 佐野和真 Sano Kazuma
- 古畑星夏 Furuhata Seika
SYNOPSIS
Kururugi Yuni always has the same expression on her face, and it's difficult to know her feelings because of her stoic demeanor. A senior in high school, Yuni is always at the top of her class because of her exceptional grades in most courses, particularly mathematics.
Ever since she was in junior high school, Yuni wanted to study in University of California so that she can attend the lectures of her favorite professor Thomas W. Mendel. However, she has given up on her dream because she always had a hard time understanding English.
The new English teacher Sakurai Haruka is concerned that Yuni is only getting low scores in his class, and he he offered to give her special lessons everyday. Although Haruka seems to have a very laid back personality, he is actually very perceptive and observant.
Haruka is worried about Yuni because he noticed that she is suppressing her emotions. He encourages her to be more open about her feelings and her thoughts.
REVIEW
Kinkyori Renai is a movie about forbidden love between a high school student and her teacher. A relationship like Kururugi Yuni and Sakurai Haruka is not socially acceptable because a teacher is an adult and in a position of power, whereas a student is a minor who doesn't know much about the ways of the world.
There are a lot of things that were highlighted in the movie, but then weren't properly expounded on. Kinkyori Renai is based on a manga with the same title, and I wonder if all these unanswered questions were properly addressed in the source material but were glossed over in this adaptation because of time constraint.
For instance, Yuni's stoic personality came about in middle school, but she was supposedly completely different when she was younger. There has got to be a story behind the change, but it wasn't shown.
For another, Haruka is supposed to have fallen in love with Yuni as they spent time together for the special lessons, the same way that Yuni developed feelings for him. Even though it was somewhat presented how that happened and when for her, it was as if he was in love with her all of a sudden.
Although I want to be open-minded about such matters, I can't help but want to be careful in similar situations. Not all teachers take advantage of young students and some relationships are really meant to last, but you have to admit that these cases are extremely rare.
I actually have a schoolmate in college who fell in love and was in a relationship with her high school teacher. I think they handled their relationship well because although they were already together when she was in high school, she went away for college and they waited until she graduated before they got married.
I think it's great that my schoolmate had the time to be a normal teenager. Not only did all those years helped them determine that what they have is true love, it also helped the people around them to realize that what they have is truly special and to accept the situation.
Alike:
近キョリ恋愛 Kinkyori Renai (2014)
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近キョリ恋愛 Kinkyori Renai
