Wolf Girl & Black Prince is the live action adaption of the manga written by Hatta Ayuko. Manabe Yukiko is the screenwritter for the film while actor and director Ryuichi Hiroki takes control of the camera. Nikaido Fumi and Yamazaki Kento play a couple who form under strange circumstances. A girl tells her friends that she has a boyfriend but its a lie. One day she finds a really attractive guy who she takes a picture of and passes him off as her boyfriend. Her friends want to meet him and the girl panics. She then finds the attractive guy and asks him to pretend to be in a relationship with her. He agrees but this boy's personality is anything but attractive......
This film starts off with a youth filled energy that keeps alive all the way to the finish. While this film is directed toward teenagers/young adult women, it doesn't go to an area of cliche where your watching and thinking in the back of your mind how unrealistic it is. Wolf Girls takes real human emotions of todays youth and based the progression of the plot on its revolution. The viewer sees all the problems most people in high school and middle school worry about at the time. Acceptance and finding their place. These problems are not really so important outside of high school which people tend to find out latter in life. Sadly, our Heroine learned what was really important early on. She became a stronger person but her situation with a boy who has no problems being downright rude would make a person stronger anyway. Watching Wolf Girl & Black Prince made me remember my times in high school and the need to depend on someone in order to survive. wither its friends or a lover, you look for approval from something. what happens when you run into a person who won't give you the approval you seek? Instead that person is harsh and brazen with you because thats how they express themselves. The only thing you can do is find acceptance in yourself. Thus the conflict of a Wolf Girl and her Black Prince.
Shots show school life in Japan for most students. It really looks fun and active but I'm not sure how real to life this portrayal is. Camera angles literally surround the actresses and actors for certain shots. I noticed the camera will constantly move when capturing a shot. Actors and actresses can be sitting down and the shot will be of them movie to an angle. A lot of little shakes like a documentary over take some shot for scenes. I think its a style choice for many films and it works. The outdoor shots of Japan shown when the students went on a trip makes me want to go too.
Besides the two lead characters, the costars are colorfully acted. They work the camera to fill up the time thats not used on the two leads. I felt like each character had their own storyline without knowing too much about them. For example, you could tell where each character stood on their school's social ladder without them stating it. Their demeanor and the way they spoke tipped me off. Back to the chemistry of the two leads. Kento has grown into a great actor due to his experience with other film projects such as Death Note, Another, Orange, etc.(All manga adaptions.) I've written about him before in the post about the J drama, A girl and her sweethearts. If you watch this drama then you know Kento can play some mean characters so taking the role of the black prince was like knocking the ball out of the park. Fumi is nothing less than a punching bag for all the verbal assaults caused by Kento's character. Still a punching bag can be strong too. A pig part of this film was Fumi's character finding the bravery to step up and own who she was. She was stronger than she gave her self credit for but people don't always realize their true potential until they have gone through a hard time. Kento's character has caring moments but never lets up on his abuse. I feel weird saying this, His character was more interesting because he never let up on her. It was a test in a way. All their back and forth arguing called for some chemistry and they had that. I enjoyed watching them act together.
Wolf Girl & Black Prince might be the second best high school Shojo manga live film adaption I've seen since Blue Spring Ride. Everything from the soundtrack to the cast was done right. Check this film out if you like romantic Japanese films.
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