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スマイル 聖夜の奇跡 (Smile - Seiya no Kiseki)
Dec. 29th, 2007 12:32 amDude. If you're in Japan and like hockey, you should GO SEE THIS MOVIE. RIGHT NOW.
Seriously, this might be one of the best movies I've seen in a long fucking time. I laughed, I cried, it was better than Cats, etc. I even understood 95% of it, which is saying something too.
Mirai Moriyama stars as Shuhei, a former tap dancer who moves up to Hokkaido to try to marry his skating-coach girlfriend Shizuka, played by Rosa Katoh. Of course, nothing is EVER easy, and Shizuka's father of course says "NO FUCKING WAY", because, quite frankly, Shuhei is kind of a wacko. Shuhei says that he's come up to Hokkaido to be a teacher at the local elementary school, and Shizuka's father asks if he has any leadership qualities, to which he says "Yeah! I'm going to be the coach for the ice hockey team!" (Can he skate? No. Does he know anything about hockey? No. Has he ever coached a team? No. Will that stop him? Apparently not.) Shizuka's father challenges Shuhei to have his team actually win a game and then maybe he'll allow the two of them to marry. In the meantime...
...the frame for this story is that a now-famous hockey player named Masaya has been thinking of Christmas 20 years ago, see. Masaya is remembering the autumn when he fell in love with a young figure skater named Reina, which of course happened at the same time that this crazy Shuhei guy started coaching the hockey team and leading them to glory. And of course, there's also a badass tomboy girl named Chinatsu who has a crush on Masaya. Chinatsu punches his lights out one day after he turns her down, and subsequently she ends up on the team... as does a Russian exchange student, and some other kid from the sumo club, and...
...as we find out in the previews, Reina is diagnosed with some fatal disease, which happens of course RIGHT after Masaya finally has the guts to go out on a date with her. And then at the same time that we learn that the REAL team to beat for Hokkaido schoolboy hockey glory is the Thunderbirds, who are Dark and Evil. Naturally, the Thunderbirds' coach is a right asshole who also happens to be Shizuka's sempai from college, and threatens to be a love rival for Shuhei.
And of course, hilarity ensues.
Yes, the plot is completely cheesy and predictable. You pretty much know from before you even sit down in your seat that Reina's going to die and the rag-tag Smilers are going to tap-dance their way to the hockey championship. And does it matter? No, not really. This movie is funny and lovely and sad and sweet and hockeyriffic all at once, and worth every minute.
Official Site
Trailer on Youtube
And no, I really don't know how to write movie reviews. I just really enjoyed this movie a lot. It was made of pure awesome.
As for the rest of the day, I went to Costco out in Tamasakai with Eri in the afternoon so she could buy lots of food and we could scout it out for potential future GEOS party supplies. She bought a lot of things and I bought Goldfish and bagels. And lint rollers. I did try many samples of food though, which was fun. Also, I had a slice of Costco pizza, which TASTES LIKE AMERICA! and after that I ended up coming home for a while. I rode down to Kawaguchi Ario on my bike around 9pm. It was raining just a little bit then. I had omurice for dinner, and I saw the Smilers movie by myself; there were a total of three people in the theater. Riding home sucked, though, the rain was in a downpour and I had no umbrella; my jeans got totally soaked. But it's fine now. Also, my right foot seems better and my back seems a bit less painful too. Hooray!
Seriously, this might be one of the best movies I've seen in a long fucking time. I laughed, I cried, it was better than Cats, etc. I even understood 95% of it, which is saying something too.
Mirai Moriyama stars as Shuhei, a former tap dancer who moves up to Hokkaido to try to marry his skating-coach girlfriend Shizuka, played by Rosa Katoh. Of course, nothing is EVER easy, and Shizuka's father of course says "NO FUCKING WAY", because, quite frankly, Shuhei is kind of a wacko. Shuhei says that he's come up to Hokkaido to be a teacher at the local elementary school, and Shizuka's father asks if he has any leadership qualities, to which he says "Yeah! I'm going to be the coach for the ice hockey team!" (Can he skate? No. Does he know anything about hockey? No. Has he ever coached a team? No. Will that stop him? Apparently not.) Shizuka's father challenges Shuhei to have his team actually win a game and then maybe he'll allow the two of them to marry. In the meantime...
...the frame for this story is that a now-famous hockey player named Masaya has been thinking of Christmas 20 years ago, see. Masaya is remembering the autumn when he fell in love with a young figure skater named Reina, which of course happened at the same time that this crazy Shuhei guy started coaching the hockey team and leading them to glory. And of course, there's also a badass tomboy girl named Chinatsu who has a crush on Masaya. Chinatsu punches his lights out one day after he turns her down, and subsequently she ends up on the team... as does a Russian exchange student, and some other kid from the sumo club, and...
...as we find out in the previews, Reina is diagnosed with some fatal disease, which happens of course RIGHT after Masaya finally has the guts to go out on a date with her. And then at the same time that we learn that the REAL team to beat for Hokkaido schoolboy hockey glory is the Thunderbirds, who are Dark and Evil. Naturally, the Thunderbirds' coach is a right asshole who also happens to be Shizuka's sempai from college, and threatens to be a love rival for Shuhei.
And of course, hilarity ensues.
Yes, the plot is completely cheesy and predictable. You pretty much know from before you even sit down in your seat that Reina's going to die and the rag-tag Smilers are going to tap-dance their way to the hockey championship. And does it matter? No, not really. This movie is funny and lovely and sad and sweet and hockeyriffic all at once, and worth every minute.
Official Site
Trailer on Youtube
And no, I really don't know how to write movie reviews. I just really enjoyed this movie a lot. It was made of pure awesome.
As for the rest of the day, I went to Costco out in Tamasakai with Eri in the afternoon so she could buy lots of food and we could scout it out for potential future GEOS party supplies. She bought a lot of things and I bought Goldfish and bagels. And lint rollers. I did try many samples of food though, which was fun. Also, I had a slice of Costco pizza, which TASTES LIKE AMERICA! and after that I ended up coming home for a while. I rode down to Kawaguchi Ario on my bike around 9pm. It was raining just a little bit then. I had omurice for dinner, and I saw the Smilers movie by myself; there were a total of three people in the theater. Riding home sucked, though, the rain was in a downpour and I had no umbrella; my jeans got totally soaked. But it's fine now. Also, my right foot seems better and my back seems a bit less painful too. Hooray!
