Daytime Shooting Star (2017)

A Lesson About Love In Tokyo...

It’s a romance formula that has been seen and done countless times before ; the naive and eccentric country girl arrives in the “ big city” ( in this case Tokyo), develops a crush on someone older than her / out of her league, makes a frenemy and is totally oblivious to the second male lead’s evident feelings for her in every way possible.

Taken frown the eponymous and popular Japanese manga series,Daytime Shooting Star is the epitome of the typical high school romance formula - binding cliches , romantic triangles and a fairly good cast together in hope of making a profitable production . Yet it will probably come to your attention both through the synopsis and previous comments, where the more ethical issue issue lies within the plot and certainly if it will ruin your experience of the overall movie.

Before coming to that point, it’s important to say that our main cast did bring the movie to life through a mixture of comedy and angst on the big screen; Mei Nagano was brilliant as our main female lead, Suzume Yasano- a country girl with a big heart desperate to make friends in the city, whilst costars Alan Shirahama ( playing taciturn high schooler Mimura) , Shohei Miura ( as teacher and Suzume’s crush Satsuki Shishio) and Maika Yamamoto ( who plays Suzume’s frenemy - turned best friend Yuyuka Nekota) were all fairly good within their performances.

What still remains prominent in terms of storyline for viewers, however, is Suzume’s relationship with her teacher Satsuki. Teacher- Student / older lead and younger lead have long been a popular trope in romance dramas ( note Chugakusei Nikki and Hello My Teacher for examples) , however, determining if they’re “ right” for a piece or not should really depend on several significant factors; the age difference between the characters, the purpose of this relationship and what the intended message by the director or screenwriter is for this relationship. ( For example, in Taisetsu na Koto wa Subete Kimi ga Oshiete Kureta, this isn’t sugarcoated and is used to deliver a lesson about life.)

As far as Daytime Shooting Star is concerned, the age difference between Suzume and Satsuki is officially never brought up, however, the implications are strong that he is a lot older . The way the storyline goes, Suzume’s crush on Satsuki and Satsuki’s actions are both questionable and interesting, as Suzume. begins to understand more about Mimura’s feelings - the ending is perhaps not the one many viewers saw at the beginning, however, Suzume’s ending is fittingly sweet and happy.

Overall, not an original concept but certainly sugary sweet and a guilty watch - the element of Suzume’s growth as an individual is quite inspiring, however, there are some issues which are nonetheless raised by parings.

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Well not bad, live action. Tbh there are a lot of missing elements (characters & scenes etc) which is totally understandable since its a movie and they cant  really cram the whole manga in it right? So I guess they just picked the important scenes and somehow made it all connected. Which worked for me because I have read the manga.  But on an opposite perspective of a person who haven't seen the manga, I would say that its rushed. I'm not even sure how Mamura fell for Suzume or vice versa. There was also a lack of character depth and growth which is really a bummer.  

Character wise, Mei Nagano was spot on. She was just so refreshing to look at. Miura Shohei on the hand also did great. But sometimes I just want to comb his hair lol (I know, they're just referencing the manga but still...) and Alan Shirahama... well, I may be a little biased about him since I was really pegging for Kentaro, never-the-less,  he pulled it off somehow. The little smiles he makes  were really cute.

All in all, it was a great live action. Plus, it was quite faithful to the manga despite some deleted scenes and characters.

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