Kimi no suizó o tabetai

I am going to start with what I thought was the biggest problem with this movie, i.e the fact that everything is way too predictable. They leave nothing to the imagination, leaving no surprises, and so you know exactly what is going to happen as soon as you are introduced to the characters. You can work out pretty early on how it is all going to end. When that “fateful moment” arrives, you are already expecting it because the timing is just completely obvious... In other words, if you have already seen a few (well, at least a few dozen) romantic movies (I immediately thought of Sweet November with Keanu Reeves), then this is nothing you have not seen before. Also, if you have seen any other romantic Japanese movie, then you can easily predict the outcome of most of the situations in this movie in advance. After saying that however, there is a certain beauty in its simplicity, and so I can see why the reviews of this movie were full of confessions about how the reviewer(s) in question cried like a baby. In conclusion, despite how gauche and obvious it is, it all works well, and in my opinion, you can actually grow to like the characters. Even the dialogues are very well written and so the movie manages to be touching at times. I guess this is a really good melancholic movie, although because I am only awarding five stars to things that genuinely blow me away, I cannot give this movie full marks. I watched this movie intensely, and although it was melancholic and joyous at the right moments, unfortunately, it never actually touched my heart, which is hidden deep down somewhere. 7.5/10. (18.12.2018)