So I had a movie ‘date’ with a … guy. Because Cynthia has an social gathering with other girls and she doesn’t like to watch sappy Japanese movies. Sure, give me some of those tragic tears. I mean that’s what you would expect when you watch a Japanese teenage romance, especially one that is from the cell-phone novel genre right (remember “Sky of Love”)?
Orchard Road was jam packed with heavy traffic. It took me a long time to arrive at Cineleisure. It was a long queue at the ticket office too. When it was our turn, the trainee said to me, “Threads of Destiny! You would love it. It’s such a great movie!”. She said it with such level of admiration, and conviction. And here we are, two dudes watching a Japanese teenage romance with an added age exceeds this young box office trainee’s by a good multiple of times. Something is wrong with the picture.
I just had to run to Far East and install a protective film for my new Nokia N97 (you will hear more later, for sure!). “Wilf, we won’t have enough time,” my ‘date’ lamented. I looked at the clock, 30 minutes before the show starts. And you know Cathay cinemas, they start movies on time. But my desire to put on some protection was too hard to deny. So I said to him, with determine, “Don’t worry, I will be back, before the show starts.”
So I ran. Really ran. Along the jam packed Orchard Road with human traffic, reached the shop before the next customer (who has 3 Blackberry phones and we had such a good chat on Nokia phones), have my protection on, and ran all the way back. My friend got me the popcorn and drink (so sweet, thanks!) and we arrived at the theatre just in time. Not a second early, not a second late. Oh, I managed to say hi to my blogger friends who were participating at the Tangs 24 hours Blogathon when I was running to and fro along Orchard Road. I am green with envy!
From what I gathered, “Threads of Destiny” is a Japanese cell-phone novel (that I will probably read), a TV drama series, and now a movie adaptation. From what I gathered, this movie version is not quite like the original story that is more violent, filled with physical intimacy and drug abuse. I am not sure why the change but watching “Threads of Destiny” as a movie, it has all the classic Japanese drama elements of teenage romance and friendship. Probably a bit overdosed with tragedies. In Singapore, the movie is edited to a PG rating. I wonder what has been edited out. Perhaps the scene on drug usage (or sexual intimacy!).
Mei and Atsushi (played by Nao Minamisawa and Junpei Mizobata) share the same birthday, Feb 29 and Fate is supposed to string them together even though there are so many driving forces that keep them apart. One moment, the story is filled with happiness. Another moment, something bad happens. I swear some of the [female] audience was gasping as the tragedy happened. No, there are no tears jerking moments and I did struggle with the lack of logic on some of these tragic moments. Personally, I think Nao looks pretty darn cute when she is sad and she has this outlook of nothing-bad-can-ruin-her-day, which I think it’s perfect for this role. Such a sad role to be in, if you think about it.
I read that some viewers are not too happy with the ending. It is not much of an ending per se as there is a part two for this movie. There are many lose ends and strange to say, I like the ending as it is.
By the way, there is this one conversation in the movie that I think it is memorable in a bizarre way. Mei asked, “Will we meet again”. And Atsushi’s answer is so out-of-the-world that you either hate it (I suspect most do) or amazed by it. I mean, who would have answered such a simple question that way right?!
