Phases of the Moon

Meeting and partings

I wanted to enjoy the idea of this movie. However the pacing and emotional core personally weren't built strongly leaving a somewhat lacking experience.

The main gripes I have with the movie was the way the story played out. Each character had reasonable reasons for you to feel like it matters but for some reason I felt a total lack of chemistry between everyone. I'm not sure what it is but all the couples didn't feel like couples. Kozue and Tsuyoshi had a really surface level romance that felt like it was just going from scene to scene.

The best example would be how they reminisced about them meeting each other. I felt like Tsuyoshi couldn't make me feel like it was an actual memory. Their banter was like it was meant to be playful digging but it didn't feel as if they knew each other for that long. The worst part about this is the emotional scenes at the end don't really hit because you don't feel that love beforehand from these scenes at the beginning.

Ruri, Akira and Ryunosuke also had this same issue. I'm not sure if I'm just not getting Ren Maguro's range yet seeing as how he's so popular, but I felt like he barely had any real connection to Arimura's character in this. I think it might have to do with again the scripting and general transitions from scene to scene. Akira felt really one sided and just sorta there. No real reason for them to even be so in love, next to making Ruri feel needed. Which is not a bad thing but in this movie it does not come through.

Arimura as well felt off more then usual. I didn't feel like she was her usual depressed character. She seemed to be struggling with the direction and line deliveries. Again I think this came down to what the director wanted. I don't feel like they understood relationship building. Kei and her also had barely anytime to set up their relationship and their fight scene was extremely poor. It felt so undramatic!

Music was also really off in this movie for me. They kept playing the John Lennon song in place where they wanted reactions but it ended up just being sorta annoying. I also felt like the movie had an extremely mellow Soundtrack that didn't help the movies scenes. There were also scenes that should of had music but didn't, like the home chase scene. It was very head scratching.

The camera work was fine. I could see they tried to infuse some unique angles to make it more interesting, like the first time they went to Akira's house with the overhead sweeping shot and the train ride home in the Final scenes. But either then that it was serviceable. The colour grading was good.

I think the main problem everyone will have is how the plot unfolds. The focus from story to story I think hurts the flow of this movie. I don't feel like it was balanced. Most of the time it was only Akira and Ruri's scenes. But as I mentioned these scenes didn't convey well enough what was going on between them. So then the rest of the movie also suffered due to lack of cohesion and connection. By the end of the movie it's hollowness is apparent due to the unbalanced use of screen time. Nothing really resolves. I wanted to really get a message of: "someday we will surely meet again, no matter how much time passes."

It was really off when Yui was at the grave with Tsuyoshi. The reveal felt out of place due to the previous scenes lacking any sort of indication that this happened already. I know they were trying to do a surprise reveal but it felt super flat. Like when Ruri convinced the father that it was her. They missed a super opportunity to redo the special hand bumps to reiterate its her! Something as simple as that would of helped immensely. You still get a few tears here and there but it's mostly at the thought of what is happening rather then the act itself. Callbacks in a movie about believing in reincarnation are really important to get that heart string.

I think personally I would retool much of the movie and interactions so they could match up better by the end.

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Where reincarnation meets romance

It started out pretty good, but then the plot became so much weirder, and so did the age gaps. It's like Until We Meet Again (TH drama) if it was straight and didn't give a fuck about morality, so I wish it had expanded more when it comes to the connection between characters, like you know, the "love" lingers, but it takes different forms now, the characters still appreciate each other, but don't try to get together again, as a couple. That just left a bitter aftertaste.
Random commentary:
* They should've hired more actors to play their older selves, that one scene where they call Meguro "middle-age looking" while he looked exactly the same was insane.
* It was hard at the beginning to hate Tanaka Kei's character, but his acting was so good I genuinely wanted to punch him, specially when he's chasing them in the car, the face--- pure sickness.
* The soundtrack was pretty solid, it was also a very sweet surprise to hear Arimura Kasumi's voice in the credits.
* The acting was pretty good, I don't think I need to say that. Though the child actresses disappointed me a little, but that's a given I suppose.
It's not that bad overall but because of the plot I don't think I would ever rewatch it.

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