darkdragon88

Taken from interviews, director Kore-eda said he came across the Fujimoto Tatsuki's Look Back manga in a bookstore and that was the start of how this live action adaptation became to be.
The movie's setup is fairly straightforward. Young Fujino is the fun student in class who draws imaginative, short, and funny manga for the school paper. Her classroom teacher asks her if classmate, Kyomoto, who is a recluse, can split the newspaper section with Fujino to get her involved. What initially is a rivalry between the two girls as Kyomoto is very talented at drawing, turns into a friendship and bond that is shown so beautifully throughout the film.

Technical details: The movie was filmed over several months in Akita to capture the seasons. From the Autumn, to the deep Winter snow, the very hot Summer, and cherry blossom filled Spring we see a beautiful visual representation of the seasons both indoor and outdoor. Cinematography was filled with effective still shots of the backs of our main characters, lots of close ups of actual drawing with amazing techniques that I was personally unaware of. Outside the confines of the room there are far/wide shots that frame and capture both the characters and the seasons beautifully as well -it's a visual treat. While these points alone are top notch, there is one scene that along with the main soundtrack from Bandoh Yuta that is absolutely brilliant and will stick with me for a long time. To be honest, I can probably re-watch just that scene over and over if possible! There is even a portion near the end that is so different and simply a treat for the eyes that I did not see coming.
I also wanted to give a shoutout to the audio capture. Japanese movies tend to have great audio, but this movie and the way the pencils and other tools are captured and presented to us are really well done.
The acting I think was decent. The younger versions of the main characters played by Okada Rokka and Nanase Furi were cute and captured the young emotions well. Our older counterparts played by Makita Aju, and Deguchi Natsuki take the more mature portions and also do a great job, especially Deguchi Natsuki, who I think has one of her best performances to date. I felt that both Furi and Natsuki really became Fujino.

Intent: I think director Kore-eda did a wonderful job adapting from the source material. The initial rocky start to Fujino and Kyomoto's friendship is felt, and the progression in their friendship with a few added scenes was a very well done and nice touch. I think those added portions really added more personality to our main characters and helped me relate more to their feelings.
While I cannot relate to the process of making manga, the art form has a deeper respect from me after watching. The passion for it I think is shown well, however, I think the source material posed a question that the movie highlighted and left us to interpret. While I am usually fine with this kind of situation, I think the movie highlighting it makes me wonder how others interpret it and if we all have our own personal answers. With that being said, the emotions presented were terrific, and in the theatre everyone was following along all the highs and lows.

After effects: It has only been a day since I've seen the movie at my local film festival. I remember the feelings I had throughout and I do think the combinations of technical details and plot are something I do want to visit again. I appreciate that the movie is such a unique tale that is so opposite of what I am used to seeing with showing the backs of characters, close ups of hands and paper, and a complicated friendship that you can't help but fall in love with. As mentioned, there were a couple of really wonderful scenes that I personally feel are a culmination of Kore-eda's past works and built up experience.
A note, at the time of writing the OST seems to be geo-locked to Japan, which is a true shame as it is such a standout.
Final note: While I did not laud the anime movie as much as others, I did think it was good. I know that there are and will be comparisons in various forms that will nitpick the two movie mediums ad nauseam. All I can say is that the live action movie resonated more with me for all the reasons I listed above, and I hope everyone who wants to watch this movie is able to.