Steineded How sad is this?

Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Forumrxes Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

subtile-cvs initially the film title suggested me that it wd be a day to day routine Asian romantic comedy movie & first 15 - 20 minutes of the movie were not able to catch me.however i persisted to continue it and the film began to develop its plot pretty much.the storyline is simple but the way it is narrated and portrayed in the film adds a magnanimous element to the description.the total focus of the movie is uncovering the most powerful human expression - to yearn for love - in a manner quite uncommon to us.with a wish to spend the desired moment with her beloved at a particular spot adds seemingly believable attribute to the film. its not glorified in the way the Hollywood blockies are - titanic, a walk to remember & that-- but simple enough to kindle the spirit of love within your heart.a must watch movie for the serious movie lovers. hats off to the Japanese for giving such a brilliant film. this film continues to be in the all time top 5 romantic movies of mine.

Venus Attack Flashbacks are mainly featured in this film as it's about nostalgia of lost love and memories. Not only we see cassette tapes back in style, there's the sony walkman, the trusty scooter, the loud bang of photo-taking machines and the chunky radio to bring us back to where the very basic of young and blossoming first love feels like.Shikoku is the town where the young couple grew up in and where they spend their adventures of grave digging, exploring islands, and fantasizing about where the center of the world is. As the story unfolds, girl got sick and boy still continued loving her but the girl ended up dying alone due to some (co)incidence.The story is fragmented in the sense that it tries to link up the present and past and at the end of the long film, it's finally connected but the link was too weak to even prove the strength of the scriptwriting. Maybe the novel that it was adapted from would be a better read as I feel that the film tried very hard to evoke the sadness out but considering myself as an easy cry audience, I didn't feel that sad.The overall setting was there but still something was missing to complete the whole picture. Maybe the acting, or the script or it took too long to develop the love between the 2 youngsters until the final link doesn't seem that important after all and the rest just crumbles….that's sad by itself.But still, I like the music, the location shots, the male lead actor (older one), colour treatment, and the concept of talking to each other thru cassette tapes so it's still recommended for Jap lovers and even better if your first love is as romantic and sad as them…..

bherring24 There's no doubt about it, this one is a tear-jerker, solely designed to push the buttons as hard as it can to affect the audiences emotion. Teenage love, making past wrongs right, the death of a lover, typhoons, it's all here. And what's most amazing is that, for the most part, the movie does it. Always hovering on the edge of cliché, but never tipping over, "Crying Out Love" essentially works.The story is told in two parts, flashing back and forwards often. One involves young Sakutaro who begins a relationship with the cute as a button Aki Hirose at a time in both of their lives when puppy love is turning into something real. The second is Sakutaro about fifteen years later, trying to come to terms with the loss of that relationship which he never quite recovered from. And his new girlfriend, Ritusko has a secret.Without giving away too much, that first story works. And, boy, does it. It is inter-cut beautifully with older Sakutaro remembering and searching for meaning. You know exactly where it's going, but the thrill is in the journey here, and it captures the explosiveness and pain of first love and the same of young loss.The second story, however, falls apart. After the first one ends, some loose ends are left to be connected, and they are, perfunctorily and ham-fistedly. And the actual finale, while far from ruining the film, adds nothing to the emotional power of the majority of the film.

Harry T. Yung The English title of this movie is "Crying out love, in the centre of the world".After the proliferation of Korean romances in the last few years, Japan has made a come back, first with top romance "poetic" director Shunji Iwai's Hana and Alice. The director of Cry, Isao Yukisada, has collaborated extensively with Shunji Iwai and has been considered by many as his successor. The book on which the movie was based has taken Japan by storm; ditto the movie. However, as the story in the book, while beautiful, is a little too simple to sustain a movie, an additional character was written into it, played by Kou Shibasaki who suggested the idea of the movie in the first place. Also, the movie adopts the favourite structure for Japanese romances, one of parallel events, the present and a flashback. The success of this approach is quite evident.Coming before the title is a prelude, with a frame showing a rain-beaten window pane and voice over, to the very, very faint background of Bach-Gounod's Ave Maria (does that bring back Raging Bull?) The voices of the boy and the girl are languid and melancholy. The meaning of this prelude scene and its background music are revealed only close towards the end.The premise is familiar, a simple, sweet high school romance ended by a leukaemia death. What makes this movie a cut above the pack is that it does not go all out to be a tearjerker. The romance story in the flashback, which accounts for most of the movie, is told with refreshing simplicity, absorbing the audience in the attentive details and interesting characters, particularly the girl played so charmingly by Masami Nagasawa. The length of two-and-a half-hours is not an issue at all. Once you get into the small town of Takamatsu, time sort of stands still. If you don't like that sort of thing, one more minute would become boring. If you love it, passage of real time in the cinema is simply not noticed.I won't dwell on the plot. We know very early that the girl in the romance eventually died of leukaemia so there's no spoilers there. To enrich the movie, an additional character is introduced, the man's (was the boy) present fiancée who however has a link to the past. Some think that this small plot twist is just a little too engineered but personally, I don't have a lot of problem with it.One very interesting aspect is the retro element. The period of the flashback is the 80s, cassette messages listened via a walkman serves as a link between the pass and the present – a sort of audible love letters.Ken Harai fans make sure that you do not dash away before the ending credits, which is accompanied by his performance of the title song he wrote.