Matomo Janai no wa Kimi mo Issho (2021)

Lovely rom-com with a deep message

Leveling with y'all, I have to confess that, these days, I often get the feeling that being "normal" means either transforming into one of those ruthless wolves who roam our society looking for prey (as the old saying goes, "the scum that comes on top") or else becoming one of those decerebrated "pod people" who constitute the aforementioned wolves' elective prey. The alternative is simply not being "normal" and choosing instead to be yourself, using your own brain and moral values to find your own place in life, regardless of what the wolves and the flock think of us.
And that's, in a nutshell, the surprisingly deep message conveyed by this light, lovely rom-com.
The funny leads take the whole movie to realize how much they're done for each other, being the true, free individuals that they both are, instead of chasing, respectively, the cold-blooded, manipulative wolf (the toymaking CEO) and the wolf's prey - who chose to be his victim (the CEO's bethroted).
The discussions between the leads are the real gem of this movie, thanks to the great script and to the equally great performances delivered by Kiyohara Kaya and Narita Ryo - and if those exchanges happen to reminisce you of such great rom-coms as "The African Queen" (Bogart & K. Hepburn) or, to stay in Japan, "Saigo Kara Nibanme no Koi" (Nakai & Koizumi), well, that's simply 'cause nothing really new happens in cinema, it's just a matter of how the old ingredients are assembled...and this time, the "kitchen" did a very good job indeed! 10/10 ^___-

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Seemingly simple but touches on a lot of topics

I watched this movie a few times over the years. At the heart of this movie are our two leads play by Narita Ryo and Kiyohara Kaya. They are perfectly cast with quick banter and fun conversations. Ryo's character, Yasuomi is a robotic-like cram school teacher, and Kaya's character is his student, Kasumi. While this does have a teacher and student trope, it's a lot more than just that. Both are characters that personally feel "not normal". Yasuomi is a boring smart man who can't seem to date normally. Kasumi wants to stick to her gossip filled girl group but thinks they are quite fake, and would rather look at a future thinking, tech company CEO who she believes is bringing us to a better future.

The dynamic relationship built between the characters and how things develop is done very well. The mix of old vs new school, female vs male views, adult vs teen, straight/stoic vs dynamic, experience vs inexperience, and probably more that I can't think of are all shown. I really enjoyed the acts as we progress through the story, and there is a fair bit of comedy in each section. The synopsis does say how Kasumi helps Yasuomi to be normal (with women), and this is absolutely what makes this movie a gem. To boot, it's filmed very well with some long cuts with tons of realistic and fun banter.

Personally, this made me a huge fan of Kiyohara Kaya and is still memorable to this day.

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