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05/11/2008 Archived Entry: "Movie Review: Love*Com"
Love*Com
Directed by Kitaji Ishikawa
Based on manga by Aya Nakahara
Distributed by Viz Media
Review by Linda Yau
If you were a girl, would you fall in love with a guy shorter than you? Or if you were a guy would you fall in love with a girl taller than you? This double question was the starting point in the movie Love*Com.
Risa Koizumi is the tallest girl at her class, while Atsushi Otani is the shortest guy at classmates. Their names puns their heights, with Koizumi meaning “Little Spring” and Otani meaning “Big Valley.” This didn’t spell good beginning for the leads. At first they were unfriendly classmates to having a tentative friendship being after they found out their common love of a very unusual and fictional rap star (Umibozu). Their friends have never heard of this singer, so it didn’t help when they were trying to explain the appeal of a very emo and egoistic rap singer.
Time in the movie is shown passing with the four seasons and school year, so it was after Winter of Year 1, when Risa started to have a crush on Otani. She confesses, but is semi-rejected by the very dense Otani. Risa spends the next year or so trying to forget her crush on Otani. It wasn’t until the appearance of a cute new young assistant homeroom teacher to get relationship of Risa and Otani rolling with a very sweet ending.
Love*Com also known by the title, Lovely Complex currently has a movie, anime and graphic novel series. The graphic novel and movie is being distributed in the U.S. while the anime series is not licensed as of yet. There is no theater release of this movie, this is a DVD with only Japanese as a language with English subtitles. There are some funny extras, so upon watching the movie, it nice to see more spoofs in the extras.
There were some points that I didn’t like about this movie though, such as the introduction of the new homeroom teacher so late in the movie. It seemingly dragged on the movie and I didn’t enjoy that as much. What I really liked about the movie though was two points, watching the Japanese summer festival, and watching a wonderful supporting cast of comedy actors. Their acting was all done nicely, making Love*Com a good movie.
Lastly before I get too repetitive, I would recommend this cute romanticized film to anyone interested in a laugh and not minding the chick flick tendency. There are many puns and Japanese culture reference which can be seen as strange, but don’t worry. Just sit back and enjoy the movie. I know that I did.
For more information about the series and manga, itself here's the Wikipedia link.
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