Gaming, Japanese flower boys, starry-eyed dreamers, and men who put their feet straight in their mouths. Join Clkytta and Telzeytalks as we review the Japanese movie, My Long Awaited Love Story.

Synopsis:

Riko, a true romantic, designs video game heroes for a dating game. She’s single and has yet to find a soul mate. While designing a new game she meets Soichiro, a man who has everything but finesse when dealing with women. When Soichiro asks Riko to help him understand the true meaning of romance no one expects them to fall in love…

Cast:

Clkytta: I enjoyed Mikako Tabe’s character Riko a lot. She’s a helpless romantic, but she’s not weak. I love how she stands up for herself even when she looks foolish.

Telzeytalks: She does research for her games by going to cafes and parks and observing the interactions of the couples around her. The behavior of many of them has made her a bit jaded about men.

Clkytta: I was also pleased with Soichiro’s character growth. Takahashi Issei did such a good job playing the grumpy all business Soichiro, who finds himself caught in the snare of love, and he has no clue how to relate to women at all. I need to also mention that Jun Shison plays our resident flower boy at the office who makes Riko’s heart flutter at first sight.

Telzeytalks: He is portrayed as a real computer nerd who is excellent in programming but not comfortable socially. Being secretly impressed by the activities Riko puts into her games, he asks her for advice.

Favorite moments:

Clkytta: My favorite moment is actually in the beginning and has nothing to do with our OTP. It’s when Riko falls into Midoritani’s (Jun Shison) arms on the street. She’s so busy fawning over him and his elegant way of speaking and mannerisms that she has no idea what really happened. We only find out later what really happened. It’s a case of misunderstanding and mixed signals that our heroine, instead of shrinking in embarrassment, fires off in an awesome rant about why real men suck.

Telzeytalks: I loved the part about Riko’s school reunion and how Soichiro supported her. She was worried about meeting some bullies who had given her a hard time in her school days. He advised her to pay them back, and she was great!

The Cinematography

Telzeytalks: I was interested in the way the scenes and camera angles were set up. I didn’t think about it when I was watching the movie, but when I went back to get pictures, it popped out at me. They photographed many times using low angles, which gave a more intimate impression. A lot of establishing shots were of feet walking into the next scene.

Clkytta: The camera angles were interesting and allowed us to get a different point of view many times. As Telzey points out, they made really interesting use of lower angles.

Telzeytalks: Many times these low angles show what is seen from a character’s point of view. For example, we see from Riko’s perspective as she opens her laptop, and then we see a view almost from the computer’s perspective at table level, showing her preparing to type.

Telzeytalks:And when she nearly falls and Midoritani catches her, he puts her down on a bench and then we see him through her eyes, looking up at him.

Should you watch?

Clkytta: Yes! For a show full of tropes, it’s amazingly fresh. I really liked the writing in this one and how the actors complemented each other. I actually chose this drama at first because of Jun Shison because I loved him in Kimi Wa Petto. I was pleasantly surprised that I fell for Takahashi Issei pretty hard. If anyone has any suggestions of other movies or dramas that are subbed with him in them, let me know in the comments.

Telzeytalks: Definitely yes. This show is set in the winter, but I loved the warm atmosphere as we watched a couple of nice people getting to trust each other. If I had seen this movie before we did the Valentine’s Day post, I would have chosen these two as my favorite movie couple!

Until our next movie marathon,

Clkytta and Telzeytalks

Dramas With a Side of Kimchi