Close Range Love (2014)

Lets address the elephant in the room

I was surprised that no one else brought up this movie's highly inappropriate subject matter. I don't want to be that person, but here I go regardless! The premise of the story is appalling. It's about a high school student who falls in love with her teacher, and they start a secret affair. This is not only unethical but also illegal and immoral. The movie tries to portray their relationship as sweet and innocent, but it's actually abusive and manipulative. The teacher takes advantage of the student's vulnerability and naivety, and the student risks her future and reputation for a man who doesn't respect her. The movie doesn't show any consequences or challenges for their actions, and it ends with a happy ending that's unrealistic and irresponsible. I think this movie sets a bad example for young people and glorifies a harmful and inappropriate romantic relationship.

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This is one of the few live-action films that I've watched where I have yet to read the manga and I guess I was expecting a lot since I wanted to be surprised...to say the least. But really the reason why I wanted to watch this is because of the main actors: Yamapi and Nana Komatsu.

I've seen Yamapi in his latest drama, From 5 to 9 and I wanted to see his acting abilities. But just like his character in that drama, Yamapi feels like a #deadfisheye actor. (I read in a Psycho-Drama article, there's agood analysis of his acting in his other works there as well.) He is good-looking, yes. (And his character in that drama requires for him to have that type of acting but after seeing it here too...) And he has the charisma but his acting just doesn't feel real.

Nana Komatsu on the other hand basically swept him under the rug. I've just seen her in The World of Kanako and she is amazing. Her character here is suppose to the one who puts on the ultimate poker face (which she is able to do really well by the way) and Yamapi is suppose to be the one to complement that character by contrasting with her, yet he probably chooses to have a poker face/deadfisheye battle with her.

Plot wise, it's nothing new. Teacher-student relationships are common in anime and manga. Is it done right here? Well, I can't say for sure. I just think that there's not enough development and scene for the two to make their relationship and feelings believable or sincere. Yes, they have chemistry. But it just lacks the development for it to feel like it's done right. We also don't know why Komatsu's character is the way she is. And why Sensei chooses to give her private lessons. There are a lot of gaps here which is why I truly didn't have much of the *doki doki* feelings.

Side note: Also technically, even if Komatsu's character is 18 years old (the legal age in most countries), you're considered an adult at 20 in Japan and they even have a ceremony for it.

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It needed some emotion!

SPOILERS! SPOILERS!
This movie felt to me like they edited out the scenes that would have made the movie make sense, any scene that included any time of emotional development between the characters.

Yamashita Tomohisa as teacher Sakurai Haruka - he kept all the crazy girls at bay, and falls in love with a girl that has no emotions whatsoever? They've never had a conversation with one another, but he loves her? He's gorgeous, that's all I got from him.

Komatsu Nana as Kururugi Yuni - she was the most immature, mature young lady ever. She hates him but she loves him? She's never shown any emotion at all, yet she's going to confess in front of the whole class? Did she love him because he talked to her about English? What's the attraction!?!? This character was the epitome of robotic. They might have been portraying her to be on the spectrum, but if so, this movie would have been so much better if they had addressed it. I think it might have been to show that only he saw her "inner emotions" because she clenched her fists. She's beautiful, that's all I got from her.

Don't even get me started about how, even though they have never been on a date, he wants to marry her.

I did like how the evil troublemaker was one of the teachers and not one of the kids, though why there always has to be an evil troublemaker, I have no idea.

I would have enjoyed it, I think, if we were given any insight into why they loved each other.

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"Close Range Love" have been on my to-watch list for years and i finally found time to sit down and watch it. Its a romantic drama about the introvert Kururugi Yuni who falls in love with her charming english teacher Sakurai Haruka. I am much used to the basic cheesy storylines since many of j-dramas and j-movies are based on mangas. I found this movie to be rather adorable but i would not like to re-watch it. I find Komatsu Nana a very stunning actress and she acts so well with her eyes and conveys emotions rather well despite playing such a stoic character like Yuni.

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???

mmm ... By the image of the poster and by the preview of the dorama, I had an expectation that this was going to be a fluffy and heartlight movie, however it was extremely dull, and as I like the dorama a tiny bit, I yet gave it a try and read the manga (I mean it's a 40 ch/10 vol manga, so something good have to have) but the true it's that the manga has not plot at all, yeah pretty highlighter manga, and not that bad, but not that special either, I think that with one or 2 volume would had been a better manga, so yeah, dorama and movie don't follow faithfully the manga, and also the manga it's not that good, not that bad.

So my advice to you, watch it if you have nothing else to do and want to kill time, that's it. It's a movie to kill time.

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A quick enjoyable movie

I was looking at 5-9 that popped up on my main page and Yamashita Tomohisa caught my eyes as he's definitely still eye candy thru the years and so i watched. I thought it was a cute movie of first love for both of them. It really bugged me that Mirei did a petty thing because she was jealous that huruka liked yuri. I liked how he reacted when he'd see her crinkle her skirt, touch her earlobe or pet the, cat he would could sence something off thru i feel the cousin did the right thing of not ratting huruka out as he did help her escalate her Eng. score very fast and he openly said he wanted to marry. Im happy with the ending PS: remember this is from 2014 Enjoy

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Very nice movie ,yes it is not easily to accept the student -teacher relationship but the direction of story is good that both the character knew their limits and wait for the correct time to come .... And they maintane their distance all the time ....Other support character also very good they did the best job......But movie is little slow ,no...... actually I think the dull expression of lead actress at the starting make the scenario little boring but her character is like this so can't help. At the end part of movie I think that she will complete her course and their will be 3 years span and then they will meet but it does not happen ,I think they should do more with the end part.
Rest everything is perfect.

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