Heavenly Forest (2006)

• Year: 2006
• Released: 16 Mar 2007
• Country: Japan
• Adwords: N/A
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0872022/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/heavenly_forest
• Metacritics:
• Available in: 720p, 1080p,
• Language: Japanese, English
• MPA Rating: N/A
• Genre: Drama, Romance
• Runtime: 116 min
• Writer: Takuji Ichikawa, Kenji Bando
• Director: Takehiko Shinjô
• Cast: Aoi Miyazaki, Hiroshi Tamaki, Munetaka Aoki
• Keywords: photography, camera, death,

7.4/10

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Heavenly Forest Movie Reviews

Charming Japanese romance

This is one of those light movies that is so charming and enjoyable you can’t even begrudge its slightly sappy ending. Hiroshi Tamaki stars as Segawa Makoto, a university student who shies away from people because of an unknown illness. He’s interested in photography and one day while taking pictures in the woods he runs into Satonaka Shizuru, a quirky waif and classmate, adorably played by Aoi Miyazaki. The normally shy Makoto feels strangely relaxed with the energetic Shizuru, and the two form a friendship. Complications arise from Shizuru being not-so-secretly in love with the oblivious Segawa, who’s instead in love with another classmate, the beautiful Miyuki, as well as Shizuru’s illness.

Both leads are good, though frankly this is a movie which they don’t really have to do much besides act cute. Still I have to praise Aoi Miyazaki, who stole the movie. I’ll be honest, I’m one of those grinches who usually can’t stand the relentlessly cute and cheerful, squeaky-voiced female protagonists popular in Asian romances. But Aoi Miyazaki completely charmed me with her exuberant performance, which seemed natural despite its childishness. It took me a little while to get used to Hiroshi’s Tamaki’s performance, I felt he overplayed the awkwardness of his character in the beginning. But he and Miyazaki have a really nice and easygoing chemistry, and they form a realistic couple you want to root for. Supporting characters aren’t annoying (if you’ve watched Asian dramas, you’ll know what I mean).

Thinking back, I’m struck by how perfectly balanced the cuteness and unforced emotion was in the movie. Too many romantic dramedies tend to overdo the former, in my opinion, and sacrifice the latter to get a tear, by setting up melodrama. Not to say that this movie doesn’t do that. The ending is the cliché melodramatic ending we’ve see again and again in Asian romances. Yet it works because the movie has engendered so much good will along the way and it shows just enough restraint.

The cinematography is adequate. I feel it didn’t quite utilize the full beauty of the title forest(there was perhaps a little too much light in the scenes). That perhaps speaks for the movie as a whole. It’s a little too fluffy to be substantial, there have been more original and sensitive versions of its basic plot line. But I recommend it, mostly because of the performance of the female lead.

Heavenly Forest is a winner in its genre

I was a bit surprised by the sometimes frank and honest dialog coming from Aoi Miyazaki’s character in what for the most part is a very family friendly bit of Japanese young love/first love cinema. But it is appropriate for her character, a set-to-mature-at-any-moment young woman deficient in some necessary growth hormones needed to push her over the edge (that when triggered by a first kiss could ultimately be her … undoing) and seems trapped in young adolescence. It’s a very cute and cute-funny, and really sad, sad, film. Miyazaki teeters the edge between coy and seductive so well it made me dizzy … with delight. I could, however, understand her pouty lipped attempts at cuteness turning some folks off. She does slip out of it each time very quickly, though. That’s part of her charm, I guess.

The film is beautifully photographed. The ‘heavenly’ forest is fairy-tale gorgeous, as are the three young actors we spend time with. The story is engaging too, clearly a novel-adapted one.

Simply Beautiful

Tada, kimi wo aishiteru is definitely one of the most beautiful films ever made. A simple story between two brilliantly presented characters: Makoto (Tamaki Hiroshi) and Shizuru (Miyazaki Aoi) conveys a powerful message of life.

Photography as an art form is really beautiful because it captures the little memories – of things that may seem simple to people but are in fact meaningful to us. Memories like a smile of a loved one, our friends, of good times, and of nature.

Featuring incredibly artistic photography by Miyazaki Aoi (who dragged random people away from their busy lives in New York, to take their photos), stunning cinematography, beautiful music and one of the best acting performances ever captured on film, this is the perfect film for today’s world that is suffering the cost of excessive greed. It is a magnificent film for promoting environmentalism and of treasuring the beauty of the things we take for granted.