15 minutes blog of the end of 2007

This week I got some time to watch several Japanese movies:

• Shindo - (8/10) A story about a school girl name Uta Naruse, a piano prodigy child, who gives up playing piano, and always speak her mind. Thus, she is bullied by other kids for being straightforward. Oto Kikuna is a son of a small market, who practices playing piano to get into the music college. By a coincidence, they on couple occasions, and get to know each others. Each helping the others, the movie reveal the past about Uta's past about her father and piano.
  
• Kimi ni Shika Kikoenai - (6/10) Shinya Nozaki is a deaf-mute guy, who worked at a repair center. Ryo Aihara is a teenage girl without a cellphone, because no one ever call her. By some phenomenon, Ryo begins hearing a ring tone in her head, and she is able to communicate with Shinya by thought. The story progress into Shinya's effort to help Ryo overcoming her social obstacles without telling her that he is deaf. However, what should he do when she wants to meet him in person?
• Tennen Kokkekko (A Gentle Breeze in the Village) - (10/10) How do you keep the people awake, if you have to make a movie without any excitement or action? Based on Furusako Kuramochi's shoujo manga with the same name, director Nobuhiro Yamashita is able make me loves this movie. Tennen Kokkekko is story about Soyo Migita, an eight grader in a small town, where there are only six kids including herself. Being the oldest and the source of direction, she take care of the younger kids. When a Tokyo boy of the same age moves in, she finds herself attracted to him. The movie digs into her daily life experience on friendship, and love. Note worthy mentions: Kaho's performance, and the cutey Shoko Fujimura with little screen time.
  

So, this post is a lot longer than 15 minutes. Actually, there are more movies I have watched, but I'll save those for later. You know what? It looks like all these movies are teen movies... hmmmm.