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Heavenly Forest (Tada, kimi wo aishiteru)
Directed By (Shinjo Takehiko
Japan 2006
Starring
Aoi Miyazaki
Tamaki Hiroshi
Kuroki Meisa
Written by:
Takuji Ichikawa (novel)
Kenji Bando (screenplay)
It’s the formula that has defined a generation of Japanese storytellers: love and death. The theme is older than that, of course love and death were commonly paired in stories as old as the tragedies of Greece, and it’s the theme for the most retold story of love known to mankind – Romeo and Juliet. So what wrong with love and death? Nothing, as long as it’s masterfully told. Japan has a long history of sensitivity to the genre, but unfortunately recent trends in Japanese films of Love and Death aren’t exactly going to win Cannes.
Heavenly Forest is not masterfully told, although I hasten to add that it’s told far better than so many films and TV programs of this genre in recent years. The formula tends to be riddled with attempts to manipulate the audience, and leaps of plot to serve the desired, usually melodramatic manipulations. There’s a book of tricks on every modern Japanese filmmaker’s shelf called “How To Keep Your Audience In Tears Long Enough to Hide the Holes in your Script.” Fortunately while Heavenly Forest is no masterpiece, director Shinjo Takehiko has been given a strong enough script by screenwriter Bando Kenji, that he doesn’t have to refer to that book very often.
The story is of two misfits who meet as freshmen in college. Both are afflicted by an illness that make each self conscious and unable to function socially. In short they bond at first due to loneliness, but shortly into their friendship they realize the similarities in their expressive, artistic personalities.
The boy, Makoto (played by Tamaki Hiroshi), however, is gradually accepted by a popular group of students that includes the girl he has fallen for, Miyuki (Kuroki Meisa). The group begrudgingly accepts hime, but his partner Shizuru (Miyazaki Aoi) is left completely out of the group.
The story meanders through the lives of Makoto, Miyuki and Shizuru, and the complicated relationship that develops throughout college. The performances, especially that of Aoi Miyasaki are the most compelling aspects of this youth oriented film. In addition, director Shinjo, using the beauty and tranquility of Shizuru and Makoto’s secret forest as a base, has crafted a comfortable and easygoing film. The images are well composed and shot and the action feels natural on camera.
The movie meanders through the lives and complicated relationships that develop (OK they’re not that complicated) enough so that by the time the story really progresses the physical ailments that Makoto and Shizuru suffer from are mostly forgotten. However, Shinjo occasionally reminds us that they still lurk just under the surface of these young lives. And it is those physical defects that close the somewhat contrived, but still touching story.
It’s worth seeing. If you loved John Hughes in the 80’s you’re the right market, but even a skeptic lie me was able to suspend my disbelief enough to feel a warmth for these people, and even a few tears.
