Love Com (2006)

Koizumi Risa an unusually tall high school girl, meets the "vertically challenged" young man Otani Atsushi. They find common ground in height anxieties and interests.

Director:

Kitaji Ishikawa

Writers:

Aya Nakahara (comic), Osamu Suzuki (screenplay)

Stars:

Ema Fujisawa, Teppei Koike, Shôsuke Tanihara

Cast

Credited cast:
Ema Fujisawa	...	Risa Koizumi
Teppei Koike	...	Atsushi Otani
Shôsuke Tanihara	...	Kunimi 'Mr. Mighty' Maitake
Nami Tamaki	...	Nobuko Ishihara
Lisa Kudô	...	Chiharu Tanaka
Yusuke Yamasaki	...	Heikichi Nakao (as Yusuke Yamazaki)
Hiro Mizushima	...	Ryoji Suzuki
Shizuyo Yamasaki	...	Rie Koizumi
Ryôta Yamasato	...	Rie's boyfriend
Masanori Hata
Mio Kato	...	Mayu Kanzaki
Yôji Tanaka	...	Aniki
Shûgo Oshinari	...	Risa's senpai
Aina Nishiaki	...	Otani's senpai
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Mari Hayashida	...	Maririn

Storyline

Koizumi Risa an unusually tall high school girl, meets the "vertically challenged" young man Otani Atsushi. They find common ground in height anxieties and interests.

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Plot Keywords:

high school | tall | love | based on comic | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Romance

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Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

15 July 2006 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Love.Com: The Movie

Filming Locations:

Japan

Box Office

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$2,589,674

Company Credits

Production Co:

Burning Productions, Shochiku, Shueisha

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Also known as "Lovely Complex."

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Goofs

In the science classroom when they're talking, Koizumi is facing Otani, but when the camera shows the full view, Otani is on her right side.

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Crazy Credits

After the credits, there's a scene with Rie and her boyfriend watching TV in Risa's bedroom.

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Connections

References Papá das Pernas Altas (1955)

User Reviews

Yare yare... terrible !

Love Com isn't just an adaptation of the manga and anime Lovely Complex, it's a transposition, and this makes a whole lot of difference. The director tried to give the film the feel of an anime, but what may work with drawn characters just looks plain silly with real people; the tone, the attitude, the gestures, all were exaggerated, very cartoonish and utterly unconvincing. It didn't look like a romantic comedy - which isn't a bad thing per se - but like a sitcom, with a colorful but lackluster production design and cinematography. For a film shot in 35mm meant to be released in theatres, that's totally off the mark.

The actors, who were in their early twenties, played their characters not as the teenagers they were supposed to be but as children. Otani for instance, the male character, wore a pink cap askew, long shirts and gestured like an adult impersonating a small child. That was passably ridiculous. The female lead, Ema Fujisawa, wasn't particularly impressive either, she made a lot of useless, silly faces, stupid motions, giving the same impression as Otani, that of a small child in an adult's body. I haven't seen the anime, but just from browsing pictures, it seems obvious they gave an immaturity to their characters that wasn't there in the first place in an attempt to create some light, happy atmosphere.

Ema Fujiwasa was cute in spite of her big ears, she had a nice face and her acting skill was superior to that of her male partner (she did cry well). In spite of my different grips against the film, it's mostly thanks to her that the film is watchable until the end. Another reason is that it gradually gets a bit better, perhaps because Otani character is a bit less childish than at the beginning, perhaps because we get used to the overacting. Some of the humorous side characters, the teacher and Kunimi Maitake, were on the better side of things too. However I could not shake off the feeling I was watching a Japanese sitcom and not a motion picture.

It's a pity because the main idea was good, it was about human prejudices, the embarrassment and obstacles both sex may have to overcome if a man is dating a taller woman, perhaps felt even stronger in a rigorous society like Japan. That may seem a trivial theme but there was definitely something worthwhile to explore there, I'm sure however the manga and the anime did it better. One thing though that I must give credit to the film was to make use of the excellent song from Puffy, Ai no Shirushi (been listening to it when writing this). Too bad the song wasn't more inspirational to the film crew !