We Were There: First Love (2012)
"Bokura ga ita" (original title)

Director:

Takahiro Miki

Writers:

Yûki Obata (manga), Tomoko Yoshida (screenplay)

Stars:

Tôma Ikuta, Yuriko Yoshitaka, Sôsuke Takaoka

Cast

Credited cast:
Tôma Ikuta	...	Motoharu Yano
Yuriko Yoshitaka	...	Nanami Takahashi
Sôsuke Takaoka	...	Take
Yuika Motokariya	...	Yuri
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Narumi Akizuki
Yumi Asô	...	Yano
Atsunori Fujii	...	Mamoru
Ayaka Komatsu	...	Nana
Jun'na Matsushima
Risa Sudô	...	Ayaka
Hirona Yamazaki

Storyline

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

17 March 2012 (Japan)

Also Known As:

We Were There: First Love

Filming Locations:

Hokkaido, Japan

Box Office

Budget:

$3,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Enterbrain, Toho Company

Technical Specs

Color:

Color

User Reviews

Very well delivered, I liked it more than I expected

I had previously watched the anime series and it helped me to make important points of comparison. Of course you need to have in mind that this is a live action movie, but since I fell asleep in the middle of the last live action I watched, my expectations were low for this one. It was surprisingly good and entertaining.

The movie didn't change the story at all, and even resumed it perfectly, the anime was too long or stretched on purpose, in my opinion.

What I found more refreshing about this story is seeing people falling in love with each other for more important reasons than their looks. The guys fall for a smart and sweet girl, not an airhead slutty. And she falls for a guy with a great personality, trying to help him to overcome his problems wholeheartedly. They are not superficial and irresponsible or rebels, but rational and worry about their future. As I wish most of the teens would be nowadays. But, oh well, this is fiction and I know that, but I still liked it.

Yuriko Yoshitaka does a good Nana, faithful to the character we see in the anime, she is very cute and brings a good performance.

Sosuke Takaoka plays a good Take but his best lines were taken away, which is a problem because it didn't allow him to exploit his character at the fullest. We could see that Take is a good guy and his feelings are sincere but nothing else. In the anime Take was simply perfect, and you rooted for him because he was a much better choice than Yano (Take even brought me to tears in the series). However, I couldn't see that in the movie. He did what he could with what was given to him, I say in his favor. But, as a result the "love triangle" sort of fails, to me.

But then we have this guy, Toma Ikuta, who plays Yano, he mends everything with his performance, he did it great, he IS Yano. Absolutely the spotlight of the movie, I liked him very much.

The only thing that probably bugged me a little was the overload of music. It was not necessary in some scenes, specially with a good actor as Toma Ikuta, he can bring enough emotion without needing a sad piano song.

Overall, this was a good movie, I've seen much more corny romantic movies which bothered me pretty much, but this is not the case. I enjoyed the beautiful scenery and the way this was brought to a movie format. I will definitely re watch it with my sister this time. This is abeautiful and deep story with a good message about overcoming your fears, fight for what you want in life, deal with hard situations such as the loss of someone you love and unhealthy relationships.