Kinkyori Renai (2014)

Also known as: Close range love
Country: Japan
Format: movie
Genre: romance, school life
Cast: Yamashita Tomohisa, Komatsu Nana, Mizukawa Asami, Kotaki Nozomu, Yamamoto Mizuki, Arai Hirofumi, Sano Kazuma, Furuhata Seika,
Synopsis: Kurirugi Yuni is top-marked student in her high school. Only difficult subject is English until new English teacher, Sakurai Haruka, starts to give her private tutoring in order for girl to reach the highest mark also in it. Things go a bit differently once Yuni discovers that she is falling in love with her teacher and that this might not turn out to be only one-sided.
Rating: 3/5
Based on same-named manga by Mikimoto Rin. The manga has huge fanbase and this movie was long-waited by many. Before the movie came out there was prequel drama-series what was about Haruka's high-school, before he became teacher and everything. The drama has different cast and movie cast does not make appearance in drama. (unfortunately have not seen yet)


As you know I am not a fan of teacher-student love-lines, even if the teacher is played by Yamashita Tomohisa. I know that there are people who absolutely love it, so I leave this topic to them to discuss. The age difference between the actors is 11 years, but thanks to Yamashita Tomohisa's young face, it does look much smaller and makes the movie more watchable.

But I better start off with Kurirugi Yuni first. To be honest, I actually did not mind her at all. It is only natural for young high-school girl to develop feelings for her handsome male teacher, especially after he has appointed private tutoring for her. Let's be honest, in this situation, no girl can stay indifferent with her feelings. She is a sweet girl who has her own problems to solve (or to ignore) and she might be the biggest dead-fish eyed  character that I know. She is really dull looking without showing any kind of emotions.

But this also leads us to the reason why it is so important that Haruka comes to her life. He is the only person around her who is able to read her emotions and see through her mask. This was one thing that I really liked about the movie that they greatly brought it out what they actually meant to each other, understanding and healing each other's mental state. For Komatsu Nana it was her break-through movie and she has done many movies based on mangas later as well. Her performance in the movie is considerably good when compared to many other model-become-actress-idols.

To continue with "dead-fish-eyes" then it magically makes good match to have Yamashita Tomohisa as male lead (even though I do not agree with this eye comment). It is more complicated to explain Haruka's character. He has controversial character who plays it hot-and-cold. As he has the looks then he is aware of the female students watching him and as most of them do it so obviously, then this is also a reason why Yuni's quiet and pure approach reaches him. At first he has this arrogant attitude, but it changes once he is also falling for Yuni. Despite trying to be responsible grown-up, he often comes off as thoughtless naive teenager who finds that marrying solves all the problems. Maybe I just find it shallow to jump into marriage and "one-true-love" when you know the other person only for a little time and especially when we recall that Haruka is Yuni's first love.

Then there is also Mirei, new home-room teacher for Yuni and ex-girlfriend of Haruka. What to say - world is small. She might be the most disliked character in the movie. She comes off as woman who years after not even calling once sees her ex-boyfriend and decides that she wants him back.. especially when she sees that he has moved on really well and has younger and sweeter girl on the horizon. She is not dealing with the situation in a mature way and rather finds a way to make things go her way with different tactic.

From other points what some people have said about the movie, is that it is very weird that there is not a single time that Yuni's parents are mentioned. Their teenager daughter is living with a single male relative - which is not so common for a girl, unless the male relative is grandfather. There are so many moments for parent's to interfere - the relationship, university choices etc. Come on - studying in California is not cheap even if you get a special scholarship.
So yeah, in the end there is not enough character development and overall story-line is a bit boring to watch. The biggest plus-points were the lead actors who did the best work with the script that was given to them. Good movie for fans of Yamashita Tomohisa and teacher-student-love admirers, for other's - it might be just a time-filler, but do not expect it to surprise you.