This review may contain spoilers
Once the dialogue is digested, you get yourself a decent film
She Taught Me Serendipity, along with it's translated title I Can't Say Today's Sky Is My Favourite are both quite fitting titles for this movie.We have our male lead, Konishi, who is an odd college fellow who uses his umbrella no matter the weather. He was on leave for 6 months and just returned to campus. He instantly is captivated by Sakurada who has a large hair bun and is always by herself. He has a part time job at the public bath where our second female lead, Sacchan (Saki) also works. Sacchan is in a school band and is very cheery, unlike Konishi.
On the surface I think this movie may not resonate too much with some viewers. It is heavy with lines, has some very weird transition shots, and a plot that is good but falls into that usual communication between characters problem. However, the acting, especially from Kawai Yuumi and Ito Aoi really do carry a lot of the memorable weight of the movie. Personally, I was a bit bored on my first watch and had to carve out time to re-watch it to appreciate the movie a bit more.
The deeper layer for this movie is quite well done by the writer and director, Ohku Akiko. She blends humour and every day thoughts into quirky and fun dialogue. The first half of the movie reminds me a lot of Richard Linklater's Before Sunrise in which a man and woman meet and have a long evening together getting to know one another with tons of relatable dialogue. Sakurada as a character is great. She has grown up with a fairly large issue that caused her to have no friends. She doesn't want to be seen by others and treats her large hair bun as a type of armour against those who may look at her. Konishi is similar in which he thinks he can hide from the gazes of others with his umbrella. Sakurada is more written and developed as she has her quirks like listening to the TV at full volume, and reading about The Three Princes of Serendip, to which accounts for the two main characters meeting and getting along well in a serendipitous fashion. She is the lead of the two and brings some interests to Konishi. The two even go into a local restaurant where the owner himself wishes to "hide" a menu item and digs further into the theme of having these pasts that don't wish to be shared.
After the half way mark we have a fairly large turn. Sacchan has a wonderfully long scene with Konishi that is a stand out scene. The lines she delivers is touching and memorable not only for us, but our main characters as well. From then on we get an act that I understand what it is going for, but is really just communication problems among the characters, and even hallucinations that throw us viewers for a loop. The resolution comes with some drama and is it enough of a pay off? Personally for me, it was good, but some scenes just did not fit the environment and takes away from the emotion. Sakurada has a fairly long take filled with lines that is done very well and I feel needs to be pointed out.
My biggest gripe would have to be Konishi. He is written to be a fairly flat and boring character. While there are things written to develop him only in the end, he doesn't really do anything with the supporting characters and it makes me question how some of them can feel the way they do.
Overall though, the little details of dialogue, the way words are said, the two female leads delivering detailed and relatable lines, and a decent plot are great positives for this movie. The odd transitions of slow motion and zooms, the somewhat boring male lead, communication issues, and odd scenes here and there that don't really fit do take some points away from this movie. But I see these points at the deeper level of watching to which the good outweighs the not-so-good, so I can easily recommend this to those who want to pay attention and even learn a bit about young adult life lessons. Obviously Kawai Yuumi fans as well.
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