Koizora The Review

Koizora

Koizora, or “Sky of Love”, is a romance movie originally published on the popular online mobile site Mahou no iRando. (a play on “Magic Island”) The amateur novelist wrote based on her own true experiences. This I find a bit unbelievable. She must have had one hell of a life – underage sex and gang rape, pregnancy, miscarriage, cancer, and death. The film has been criticized for being unrealistic, with its depiction of these topics.
But anyway, the beginning of the film was a beautiful love story. The middle, however, was a bit cheesy, and the end was typical, but very well-done. The ending definitely made up for the overly-dramatic middle section, and left me with watery eyes. (I hardly go soft at movies) After watching, I felt really satisfied – like it wouldn’t have ended any other way. Overall, a corny, sweet, impossible, romance movie that mostly appeals to the young female audience. Apparently 11 million viewers were sobbing by the end.
The story begins with high-school girl Mika (Aragaki Yui) losing her mobile, and the white-haired, charming high-school delinquent Hiro (Miura Haruma) picking it up. He deletes all of her contacts and messages, and basically stalks her with nameless phone calls. Mika thinks this is romantic, and the two get to know each other, despite the fact that Mika has no idea who her new friend is. They meet for the first time in school, become a couple, and create a strong bond. (I guess us girls do fall for the bad boys- LOL). Many of the plot holes started here, though (SPOILERS) – Mika, the ultimately innocent girl, goes off to have sex with Hiro, and Saki (Hiro’s ex) thinks it a great plan to hire some punks to rape Mika out of jealousy. Struggling to conceive her and Hiro’s baby, and suffering from Saki’s abuse, Mika ends up having a miscarriage, and Hiro is devastated. They break up, yet it’s obvious that they still love each other. Mika gets another boyfriend, called Yu, but once she hears that Hiro’s got cancer, she returns to his side, and stays with him in the hospital until he dies. The ending was so touching – Hiro asks Mika to run an errand, and while she’s on her way back, she gets a call from the hospital. Freaking out because Hiro is dying, she runs back, and contacts Hiro via a video conversation on her mobile. Hiro asks her to smile, and dies with her tearful, smiling face being the last thing he sees. *sorry for spoilers*
The casting was awesome – model Aragaki Yui and dashing (lol) Haruma Miura were a perfect match. Hiro’s white hair and dark tan looked strangely good on him, despite the fact that he looks like he was taken out of anime. Also, Keisuke Koide as Fukuhara Yu was the perfect choice as a likeable boyfriend that’s just too nice to compete with the bad boy for Mika’s heart. Other great supporting roles – Mika’s mother and school friends made some good appearances.
The director Natsuki Imai made some good decisions – Mika and Hiro are underage, yet their physical relationship, although a big event in the story, is not dissected and exploited. With some skillful camera angles and manipulation, the steamy scenes are kept to a minimum. Also, Yamamoto Hideo did a beautiful job with the cinematography – the scenery was beautifully done.
Koizora turned out to be much more than I expected, and ended up being worth the time, except for a few plot holes/inconsistencies. But, they added the drama we all love (or most of us anyway), so it was an enjoyable watch.