Based off the manga of the same name created by Hazuki Matcha, One Week Friends was made into a live action film this year that was directed by Murakami Shosuke and written by Izumisawa Yoko. The 2012 manga was also made into an anime that saw rave reviews even though the anime had pacing issues. I've sadly never seen the anime or read the manga. The cast was my only reason for watching this film. Yamasaki Kento returns to being the prince of high school drama themed films . Kawaguchi Haruna also joins along side Kento as the leading actress. While promising young actors and actress follow behind as the extended cast.
A boy enters his second year of high school being in the same class as a girl that he had an interaction with before. He notices that they girl spends most of her time alone and never tries to makes friends. He vows to make friends with his classmate but the girl constantly pushes him away. Soon, she confesses to him that she looses her memories at the end of every week. He then still tries to befriend her despite her illness.
I was honestly worried about how Kento would be portrayed in this film. Mind you I didn't know anything about the original story. So everything I saw was a brand new experience for me. One Week Friends's plot develops in a subtle progress. Its really a coming of age story involving high school students in the mist of school life. If it wasn't for the major conflict of the story, you would think that this film was a documentary showing Japanese kids in their normal educational environment. One Week Friends's plot talks about the true value of friendship that secures a strong overall presence in the film. I never talk about the soundtrack for films. That was until I saw how each musical score was used to dictate a different feeling for each scene in One Week Friends. Most of the music in the film is classical music performed by musicians that must have understood the film that they were creating music for. Music in One Week Friend is played so carefully causing the viewer to feel emotion even when the characters aren't speaking a line. I know that this is the norm in tons of other films too. This film makes the sequences more noticeable than other films though. On top of that, the plot keeps you wanting to connect to the cast of characters. You have a desire to learn more about all of them. One Week Friends is a story supported heavily by the cast of characters honestly .
Lets go back to my worries about Kento staring in ANOTHER high school themed film. Fans of him know that he can play various different roles. One of his best roles was playing detective L in the TV drama adaption of Death Note.(Probably mentioned this before.) My problem here is that he does too many films that sometimes have the same concept. I liked most of the films that he stared in(except maybe one of two.) but Japanese high school films can either go really well or really bad fast. These type of films are super common in Japan and it's easy for a film like this to fall into the pit of mediocrity. Especially when the plot couldn't keep a person suffering with ADHD awake. J-school productions don't center around much anyway unless there's a specific conflict involved. Kento decides to take the road less followed, breaking out of the stereotypical hot guy who's a jerk role. His character this time around is a hundred degree turn in the opposite direction. The guy is the class clown that makes everyone laugh. There's a strong determination in his personality that makes his character an interesting viewing pleasure. Haruna plays the stone faced girl who loses her memories after each week. I thought the causes and effect of her illness was made to really be simply understood because of the script. Her background relates back to her past school. No big surprise there right? She's a good actress but I wouldn't say that her and Kento had a chemistry made in heaven. Which was probably done on purpose through their acting. I would call it more spontaneous connection than romantic chemistry. Their relationship was never defined out loud as a romantic one as well. Romantic moments occur in this film for those that look for them. The connection between them just wasn't made to be defined in a cliche fashion to me. Keeping their feelings alive no mater if it's as friends or more than friends was more important than titles. Other characters that made appearances in the film were fun to watch because I keep wondering who would step in to cause a love triangle. I like how the film found a potential mate from a least expected place. Emotional driven characters always make for a great film.
Nothing too special to report about when it comes to the way One Week Friends was shot. I did enjoy how a blackboard in a classroom was used to signalize the change in seasons. Change in seasons means change in time for the character's high school careers. This is done by having the blackboard showcasing a hand drawn scenery of a snowy landscape if the season approaching in winter, or there was a scene where the blackboard had a picture of a forest in the mist of summer. Art as a focus point of the film was a good idea.(Probably was in the manga too.)
One Week Friends was a very cute film. It had me feeling all warm and fuzzy inside after watching the ending. The film is pretty decently acted film that's not too over the top using cliche romance. Romance without realism isn't true romance.
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