Opening Day: 25 June 2009

Synopsis:

Mei has been in love with Yuya all her life. They’ve grown up together. But when they reach their second year of middle school, Yuya suddenly professes his love for her older sister, Haruna.

Struggling to rebound from her decade-long crush, Mei finds comfort in the close camaraderie of her school friends, Taka, Mia, Yuri, Natsu, Mitsu and Sara and then meets a reticent and gentle-natured boy named Atsushi. The two begin to realize that they share many things in common that seem to transcend mere coincidence: the same birthday (February 29th, 1992) and a previous encounter when they were both 8. Feeling a bond of fate, they grow closer.

But destiny can have a dark side to it, too, and a shocking revelation from both of their pasts compels Atsushi to pull away from Mei. The devastating separation then unleashes a wave of misfortune upon Mei: the death of a loved one, drug addiction and domestic violence. As circumstances seek to take control of her life, Mei struggles to maintain her faith in the tenuous thread of destiny that will reunite her with her true love.

Movie Review:

This reviewer does not go to the cinemas to watch Asian movies often especially romantic Korean/Japanese ones. However, he has a soft spot for tearjerkers as such having cried endlessly when watching the Korean movie, The Classic many years ago as a teenager. Threads of Destiny was a welcome change or so he thought.

A box-office hit back in Japan, Threads of Destiny is also a television series which was adapted from a book of the same name. While it is no surprise that it blazed a trail at the cinemas, the movie would have probably worked better if it had just remained on the television.

The movie is about two schoolmates, Mei and Atsushi, who fall in love with one another and the destiny of their relationship. After Atsushi’s brave attempt at courting her, they both start to discover that they have a number of things in common, most importantly, the fact that they share the same birthday, 29th February. Soon, they also learn that destiny had brought them together before on their eighth birthday when they bumped into each other at a cake shop. This soon strengthens their bond as Atsushi had made a promise to her on that fateful day.

However, when more people find out about their relationship, Atsushi separates from Mei, only for her to discover the reasons later. The separation also causes a lot of changes in Mei’s life which tests her emotionally especially since it involves both her family and friends.

The two teenage lovebirds’ journey is one that is filled with challenges and obstacles but none too epic. Yet, these incidents seem to happen too quickly within the span of the movie thus making it seem a bit too unimaginable and contrived. It also warrants a question if Japanese youths respond in such a manner. A case in point would be when Mei’s best friend, Sara, reacts drastically when she finds out that her crush, Taka, had been out with Mei when the class had gone on a tour of another city. This irrational decision almost cost Sara her life!

The secondary plot of the movie also deals with the friendships one make and people one encounters during one’s school days and while they may somehow bring back memories, comments about the television series seem to reveal that it would work better played out over a longer course of time and episodes.

That said the cast is made up of good-looking and young Japanese talents. The amount of eye-candy makes up for the lack of depth and this reviewer was most enamoured by the actress playing Sara. This is probably not the best coming out from the Asian romance genre but this reviewer is tempted to find out how he can get his hands on a copy of the series!

Movie Rating:



(A teenage romance that works better on the television than in the cinemas)

Review by Mohamad Shaifulbahri