[Movie] Heavenly Forest (2006)

I just watched another great Japanese Movie title ‘Tada, Kimi Wo Aishiteru’ or ‘Heavenly Forest’ in English Title. It’s a pretty old romantic drama movie which released back in 2006.

Honestly I do put a high expectation through this movie, from just seeing the amazing trailer and poster. The plot is amazing, from the first scene until the unpredictable twist at the end. On the beginning of the movie it show you the present time where Makoto is traveling to New York when he receive an invitation from an old friend, Shizuru. Then not long after that, we get to go back in time where the main character has their first meeting in the pedestrian crossed road. Makoto, being a un sociable person is having a hard time to make new friends on college, the same with Shizuru who everybody think she’s a ‘weird’ girl who always wears weird clothes and rubbing her nose all the time makes them have something in common. Not just that, despite wanting to get closer to Makoto, Shizuru is leaning her interest to photograph so that she can also share the same hobby with Makoto and spending their time taking so many pictures in the forest near their campus. They became a great friend as time by, until suddenly a pretty girl, Miyuki whom Makoto have a crush on since the first day he went to college came asked him to eat lunch with her friends. Not long after that, Shizuru also decide to become friends with Miyuki, and put aside her feeling and show her full support for Miyuki and Makoto to be together. The climax of the story is the day when Shizuru asked for a kiss to Makoto as her birthday presents also for the theme of the photo that Shizuru going to use for the competition. After the kiss, Makoto feels is like the new beginning for him but not for Shizuru, because she suddenly disappear without a trace leaving Makoto dumbfound and having so many question inside his head.

One of the main thing that I love about this movie is the setting. There are three main setting in this movie. I personally was stunned by the scenery of the rain forest where Shizuru and Makato often go and make it as their special place together. The second one is the college, just like what I said befor most of the story is telling us about a college life in Japan, so it won’t be surprise if you see the main character on college most of the time. The last setting is set on the modern city of New York, it has no doubt because it’s takes on the most awesome city in the world so it must not leaving a disappointment on you.

As for the actors and actresses, Aoi Miyazaki (Shizuru) is perfectly fit the character. She can successfully portray a girl with a ‘child’ appearance.  Same as with Hiroshi Tamaki (Makoto), despite a quite big age different from her co-star he just nail it being the un-sociable guy who loves photograph and scared to meet many people. When you see Meisa Kuroki (Miyuki), you might hate her to death at first because she have the feel of a bitch girl who’s gonna steal the main actor away from his supposed to be partner. She just successfully gave me that feeling, but not long after that she gave us a nice character that’s willing to help her friends out.

Overall, I gave this movie 9/10 score. It could be 10/10 if for some little reason. Well, after all this is one of the perfect movie that you should watch with your friend during sleep over or your special Friday Movie Night. 

Favorite quote "She used to lie very often. I want to be fooled by her lies for just a while longer."