Luckily, there were still a few things left on the hard drive from when I regularly used it to watch TV. In particular was a film called Crying Out Love in the Centre of the World. I couldn’t remember why I downloaded it, but I thought I’d try it.
In short, the film is about a man, about to be married, who returns to the town where he grew up and fell in love with a girl who later died of leukaemia while still a teenager. The flashbacks are introduced by him listening to messages on cassette tapes she made when they were a couple. Meanwhile, his wife – who also knew this girl – also returns to the town.
It has a strong cast and is nicely acted. Nagasawa Masami (Last Friends), Osawa Takao (Jin), Shibasaki Kou (Galileo) and Moriyama Mirai (Moteki) are all excellent. And for the first two hours, there’s not much wrong with the film either. The stories are funny/sad/entertaining and although the film is slow and long, it’s not dreary.
But as the film draws to a close, some parts didn’t work for me. The film tries too hard to draw parallels between the past and the present, and the final scene in Australia seemed a bit rushed. But it’s a good film. At times, very good. Finding this film is perhaps the one benefit to my computer breaking down.
I read the book for this one, and didn't like it much. xD But I thought it may be due to the Spanish translation. LOL
ReplyDeleteI don't know why I liked it (although my current circumstances no doubt made a difference) since I usually steer well clear of "person-dies-tragically-young" stories. But, as the old excuse goes: I was vulnerable, and it was there. And the acting really helps.
ReplyDeleteOdd thing, though. The audio on the avi file was a little out of sync, but it never seemed to matter much. That's usually the sort of thing to drive me up the wall.