Summary
A romantic drama that’s a good showcase for its leads and the titular falling petals, but you may feel like you’re developing Progeria somewhere in the middle.
Outside of Japan, writer Keisuke Uyama is probably best know for his screenplay work on Colour Me True. Yet he is also a popular novelist, and it is his 2017 book My Dearest, Like a Cherry Blossom that gets the adaptation treatment in LOVE LIKE THE FALLING PETALS (桜のような僕の恋人).
Aspiring photographer Haruto Asakura (Kento Nakajima) falls in love with hairdresser Misaki Ariake (Honoka Matsumoto) and asks her out, even though she just cut off part of his earlobe by accident. He is inspired to pursue his dreams after watching her hard at work. Yet unbeknownst to Haruto, she has been diagnosed with Progeria, a rare disease that causes her to age abnormally fast.
Director Yoshihiro Fukagawa is no stranger to these kind of concept-based romances, having won over international audiences with films like the similarly themed In His Chart (2011) or Patisserie Coin de rue (2011). Fukagawa seems most comfortable in this territory, including long montages of the titular falling sakura petals, the couple getting to know each other and an obligatory summer festival fireworks scene.
Yet when Misaki abruptly cuts off their relationship around the midway point, both Haruto and the film become completely adrift. With well over an hour to go, excruciatingly long sequences of Misaki and her brother (Kento Nagayama) seeking a cure are intercut with the sight of Haruto curled up in a ball on his bedroom floor weeping himself to sleep. It’s uplifting stuff, folks.
It is an incredibly pretty film though. Cinematographer Hiroo Yanagida has somehow managed to capture the look of a paperback romance and extend it out through 128 minutes of gently lensed scenery. Perhaps the only misstep is the treatment of Misaki, who is kept under a hoodie and sunglasses until the crucial moment of revealing how much she has aged. Her costume design is meant to read reclusive, but as her brother carries her on his back up a hill, it comes off more as an odd mix of E.T. and Unabomber. Tying it all together are odd and tonally disonant CG cutaways of crumbling calendars.
As Misaki ages rapidly throughout the dragging runtime, the rest of us have to take the long way through. It’s a shame because there are some good elements in there, but like both of the main characters, they spend most of the film hiding in their rooms. So, while LOVE LIKE THE FALLING PETALS might be aiming for a classic tragic romance status like The Notebook or the Japanese/Korean versions of Be With You, a muddled ending robs it of any such longevity.
2022 | Japan | DIRECTOR: Yoshihiro Fukagawa | WRITERS: Keisuke Uyama, Tomoko Yoshida | CAST: Kento Nakajima, Honoka Matsumoto | DISTRIBUTOR: Netflix | RUNNING TIME: 128 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 24 March 2022 (AUS)
